The Haunting of Pale Moon
by hamgsrship
Summary: Sent to a beachfront cottage, Sara is soon followed by an unsuspecting Grissom.  Their unplanned time away from Vegas is complicated when two slightly dead cupids take matchmaking in their own hands.  Kind of OOC and AU.  Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is in response to GSRFO's new challenge of 2011. I'm using the beach vacation as my prompt. It's a bit out there, but hopefully you'll like it. I'll be waiting for your responses to see if you do!

Sara is sent on a secret Valentine vacation to a beachfront cottage. She's soon followed by an unsuspecting Grissom who takes up residence in the very next building. Their unplanned time away from Vegas is complicated when two slightly dead cupids take a difficult try at matchmaking.

The Haunting of Pale Moon

Chapter One

"Welcome to Pale Moon Cottages!" The man showing Sara into the small white house was so enthusiastic that Sara just wanted to punch him! "I hope you have a good time here! Vacations are always . . . exciting at the Pale Moon."

Vacation. Whoever had this brilliant idea ought to be burned at the stake—or at least burned out in the desert sun of Nevada. "You, Sara Sidle, have won an all-expense-paid vacation to . . . the beach!" She had to smile at that one. The beach. Right. What beach did that happen to be? The pristine sands of Hawaii? The surfing paradise of California? Maybe even a little wave-action down at the Gulf? No? What about basking in the sun at the Atlantic? No. The beach-vacation "she" won is. . .along Lake Mead. Lovely.

She sighed heavily as she put her single piece of luggage down on the bed and looked around the cottage. Single bedroom, small kitchen, smaller bathroom and a medium-sized living/sitting room. She liked the front porch—she had to admit that. It faced the water and . . . sand. She even liked the back porch. It faced . . . trees. Another sigh.

"Exciting," she said dully. "Along the edge of Lake Mead."

"Oh, don't let the area fool you! Surely, you've heard of our reputation! That's why most people come here—to see it for themselves."

"I—don't understand. I won this trip on a raffle at work. I've never even heard of the Pale Moon Cottages until I saw my gift certificate."

"I see. Well, then, I must warn you. The Pale Moon is famous for its . . . nighttime activities."

"Nighttime activities?" She raised a brow at him, noting that there was only one other building located within sight and that was a twin cottage only a stone's throw away.

"Yes, ma'am! We're renowned for our residential apparitions. Some people call them Romeo and Juliet; some call them Antony and Cleopatra; some even call them Bill and Monica! But me, I just call them the Cupids. If you see them—you don't leave unscathed!"

"You're serious—aren't you?" She looked at him skeptically.

"You don't believe me," he chuckled then went for the front door. "That's alright. Time will tell. Time will certainly tell."

Sara watched him walk down the porch steps and get into his pickup truck then drive away. "Great! Now I'm going to be haunted by two ghosts who ended up either killing themselves or becoming national celebrities for being idiots!"

She recalled how she managed to get into this mess and as usual felt a pang of heartbreak.

"You need to find a diversion," Grissom had told her. "Go! They pulled your name out of the hat. Get some rest and revitalize yourself."

"Some diversion," Sara thought as she pulled her white baseball cap from her curls then flopped down onto the bed, "I get to stare at the ceiling all week!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Oooooo, lookie at this one, Jenny!" Richard Arthur Pendleton the third, of Pendleton's Fine Furniture, told his beautiful companion of the past eight-five years, a Miss Jeanette Martha Spencer of the R. J. Spencer Publishing Company family. "She's absolutely beautiful!"

Jeanette (or Jenny, as Richard called her) made her way to the window sill and looked inside. "Beautiful, Dickie? I think you better rephrase that!"

"Well, certainly not as beautiful as you, my love," he quickly corrected himself as he looked at the blonde woman he always thought resembled Jean Harlow. He looked back at his reflection in the window and straightened his bow tie, looking as debonair as always. He always did fancy himself as a William Powell-type. "But she is attractive."

"A lot of good it will do us. We've got one more couple to unite and she has to show up by herself! HE was supposed to be in the other cottage. How are we ever going to be allowed to move on if we can't even get her to fall in love?" She breathed on the glass and fogged it slightly then wiped at it. "DICKIE! Will you stop looking at yourself and answer me?"

"But she's already in love, Jenny," he said nonchalantly as he brushed his mustache back. "We saw that when we drove into town. She absolutely swoons every time he's near. You heard her thoughts. You know what she'd like to do to him and what she'd like him to do to her! Jeez Louise, Jenny! It was so strong we didn't have any choice but to pick them."

"And you very nearly dropped the ticket when you reached into that boy's hand and picked it!" She turned to look at him again, this time swatting his hand away from his whiskers and bringing a charming smile to his lips.

"I couldn't help it! He felt me! I didn't think he'd be able to feel me! He looked so. . .dense." Dickie looked back through the window at Sara as she lay staring up at the ceiling. "What was his name? Craig?"

"No—it was Greg. And you "know" those simple-minded ones are always more sensitive to us than the others."

"That woman didn't feel "you" when you pulled the other ticket out."

"She's a mother, Dickie. Mother's minds are always full of other things. They're too busy to look into strange little sensations like being controlled by a simple little ghost like me."

"I "like" their idea of a Valentine's Day raffle! And I think it was especially ingenious of us to have Kleinfeld send that extra ticket. I don't think it would've worked if they would've only been pulling one ticket—but the way they were pulling one every day for a week was ingenious! And keeping it a secret! No one knew what the other was getting! We can't lose, Jenny! I can tell! We're on our way!"

"I don't know. He seems so. . .isolated! Almost the exact opposite of her. She's so explosive we can see the heat radiating from her. He's . . . on the other hand . . . almost a cold fish."

"But he loves her, diddums," he crooned into her ear. "Just like Pappa Bear loves his little pookey."

She giggled and brushed him away as his mustache was tickling her. "Oh, stop it, Dickie. We've got some work to do if we plan on having a successful union by the end of the week."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"What do you mean—I won a vacation?" Grissom eyed Catherine as she stood in front of his desk, holding a gift certificate for Pale Moon Cottages on Lake Mead. "I didn't even enter!"

"Didn't have to," Catherine told him. "It was put in automatically. Come on, take the vacation. You made Sara take five days off. Now, "I'm" making "you."

"I "am" still "your" supervisor—you do realize that."

"Not while you're on leave of absence."

"Now it's a leave of absence? A minute ago it was merely a five-day vacation."

"You choose. Either you go voluntarily or I'll get Conrad to write you up for a five-day suspension."

"On what grounds?" He asked with amusement as he leaned back in his chair to look at her.

"On the grounds that you're falling behind in everyone's evaluations—again! On the grounds that you neglected to send in the forms for Greg's and Nick's seminar on extensive blood spatter they've been counting on for the past six weeks. On the grounds that Warrick is still waiting for his time off to be approved so he can take a few days to spend with his grandmother. AND, on the grounds that you're becoming an absolute bear because you've been working nonstop for the past six months. You need this vacation, Gil! And we're not going to take no for an answer."

"And you think Conrad will just write me up because you guys think I'm being grumpy."

Catherine pulled her cell from her pocket and speed-dialed a number then held it out for Grissom to hear as Ecklie's voice came over the phone. "Catherine thought you'd give her trouble on this, Gil. So, I'll tell you straight out. Either you go on a short vacation so you can get your shit together, or I'll sign you off on a five-day suspension. Catherine and the guys can cover everything for the next week and what they can't, I'll get swing shift to step in and help with. You're falling behind and although that isn't completely out of character for you, it's time you take a break from it. I need you back here with a fresh head."

"And going on a paid-vacation will give me a fresh head?" Grissom said loud enough for Ecklie to hear.

"No arguing on this, Grissom. You're out of here—starting tonight. Finish your shift then go rejuvenate."

Catherine smiled at Grissom as she snapped her phone closed, clearly having gotten her way. Grissom looked back at her.

"So, how is it that "I" win the vacation—and Ecklie decides this is the perfect time for me to leave for a week?"

"Coincidence?" She shrugged her shoulders then placed the envelope on his desk and turned and walked back out the door. "Ecklie and I were having a minor discussion yesterday, before we pulled Sara's name. This seemed to fit into our plans perfectly."

"So where am I going, Catherine?" He called after her, barely glancing at the envelope as he picked it up.

"Don't know. Don't care. All the prizes are secret except their generalization. Envelope says ABC Travel Agency so it must be another trip—just like Sara's." She stopped and looked back at him. "Wouldn't that be crazy if they . . .no. . .that would be too bizarre."

Grissom watched as she walked down the hall, laughing to herself. He looked down at the white envelope with red and blue letters spelling out ABC Travel Agency then black handwritten lettering across the bottom stating "donation to LVCSI Lab." He took a deep breath and slipped his finger under the flap, tore the paper then pulled the certificate from its confines. "Seven days at Pale Moon Cottages on Lake Mead."

Great—Sara gets sent to a beach somewhere and he gets sent to a local lake. He sighed heavily. Well, if he had to go anywhere—why not some quiet cottage along the shores of a quiet lake. At least, that's what the brochure said. It looked quiet enough. Who knows, maybe he could finally get caught up on all the journals he's received in the mail over the past few months that have been piling up in his office at home.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Oh, my," Jenny sighed as she sat on the limb of a tree just outside Sara's neighboring cottage. She dangled her legs back and forth as she held onto the limb with hands on either side of her. "That is gorgeous curly hair."

"It certainly is," Dickie said from his perch next to her although he's looking in the other direction.

"And those eyes! Those eyes are amazing!"

"They're beautiful."

Ohhh, the fingers. Look at the fingers."

"Well shaped, most attractive." He sighed. "And those breasts. . ."

Jenny turned and saw that Dickie wasn't looking into the same cottage window as she was and she gave him an irritated shove that knocked him off the limb but he only dropped a few feet before turning to look at her with irritation. "Wrong window! I was talking about HIM!"

Dickie looked at the other cottage and saw Grissom taking books out of his bag and placing them on his night stand then he grabbed Jenny by the ankle and yanked her down to the ground next to him.

"You're very lucky, Miss Jeanette Spencer, that I don't bruise! That could've been a disastrous fall!"

She scrambled to her feet, pushing down the dress that had risen from its normal length of mid-calf, up to her thighs, gaining her an appreciative look from her partner in crime.

"And "you're" lucky I'm not the jealous type, Mr. . .Mr. . ." She looked back into Grissom's window as he started to unbutton his shirt and pull it off.

"Come now, Jenny, don't tell me your mind is wavering. Pendleton—remember?" He casually looked at his fingernails as he gently floated back into the air until he was sitting on the limb again. "Although I guess at your age, senility is the least of your worries. What are you now? A hundred and fifteen?"

She looked back at him and rose until she's just hovered outside of Grissom's window, then turned and sat on an imaginary chair as she watched him undress. "One hundred and eight! You know perfectly well how old I am! You're the one who's almost a hundred and fifteen!"

"Only one hundred and fourteen, my dear."

"Ohhh, keep going—keep going. . .DAMN!" Jenny huffed when Grissom failed to remove his pants and instead walked out of the room still wearing his trousers although he was shirtless. She turned back to him and started cooing to her mate. "Dickie. . . what are we going to do when we get out of here? Will you marry me like you promised?"

"I think we should concentrate on getting out of here first." He coughed as he craned his neck to get a better look into Sara's window then almost fell off his roost. "She's getting undressed!"

"Yeah? So?"

"So—he's getting undressed! Now's the perfect time!" He looked over at Grissom's window and rolled his eyes. "Where IS he?"

"He went to the bathroom or something. Oh, here he comes again! Hmmm, nice." Jenny lifted a brow in appreciation as he moved to stand directly in front of her, still wearing nothing but his pants. "Very nice."

"Would you stop ogling him?" At that moment Grissom pulled down the window shade, bringing a disappointed moan from Jenny before she turned to look at Dickie. "Look! Look! She's really taking her clothes off! I really don't like the things these ladies are calling undergarments anymore. They look like something "I" should be wearing."

"Well, Dickie," Jenny floated up to him and draped her arm over his shoulder. "After all these years, and you're only now telling me that you're a man who likes the feel of silk against his underside."

"I do not!" He looked at her sharply. "Oh! Stop it." He looked back at Sara and watched as she bent down to pick up her shorts. "Now, pookey! Now! Get him to look over here now!"

Jenny rapidly turned back toward Grissom's cottage and snapped her fingers and in an instant, his window blind flipped up, revealing him in all his glory. Within a millisecond, Dickie repeated the procedure and a pile of clothes fell off the dresser near the window, drawing Sara's attention to the small catastrophe. She walked to her window and picked up the clothes just as Grissom returned to his window and looked at the blind.

"Why can't they see? Look! Look at each other! If that doesn't peak your interest—nothing will! Look!"

Dickie rushed to Jeanette's side and touched the glass of Grissom's window. "You steamed it up, Jenny! He can't see through your breath!"

"Quick—rub it off!" She lifts her dress and fiercely starts rubbing at the water particles then stopped when she came eye-to-eye with the bluest eyes she had ever seen—and they were looking at her, almost as if he could see her. "Ohhhhhh, Dickieeeee, I think he sees me!"

"Then put your dress down! You're showing him everything!" Dickie grabbed the cloth and yanked it down then looked up to where Grissom cocked his head to the side and seemed to look over to where he was standing next to the woman. Then with wonder, as if Dickie couldn't believe it, he added, "He's looking at us."

A smirk and a shrug of his shoulders and Grissom pulled down the blind again.

"Nope! It's gone," Jenny released the breath she had been holding then they turned and looked back at Sara's window to find that she was no longer in the room anymore. "This is going to be a lot harder than we thought."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Cradypedes lateritius," Grissom said to himself as he gathered his specimen in the wooded area behind the cottage.

Dickie sat on his imaginary chair with his chin in his hand as he watched with extreme boredom. "It's a grasshopper."

Grissom put the little jar into his bag he was carrying over his shoulder and proceeded farther into the woods, having a floating Dickie Pendleton just behind him. He looked around and after a moment reached in his kit and brought out another jar. He stalked his prey then gathered it with satisfaction.

"Isoptera."

"It's a damned termite, and if you let that thing loose back at the cottage I'll haunt your ass for the rest of your natural life and well into the next one!" Dickie sat up a little straighter as he watched Grissom carefully close the lid. "Look, buddy! My idea of a good time is not spending it out in the middle of the forest with creepy, crawly insects! We've got to get you back to that woman and let your juices flow! Let your desires stir! Let your love fly!"

Grissom cocked his head to the side and said to himself, "Fly—musca domestica. Hmm." He shrugged his shoulders and started searching again. "Ah! Camponotus vicinus."

Dickie looked at Grissom very closely, then sighed and put his chin back in his hand. "It's an ant."

Grissom disposed of his little friend and moved along, stopping to inspect various wildlife and making Dickie shiver with dislike. Finally he was moving closer to the clearing but stopped again.

"Pselliopus spinicollis."

"Eee-God! It's a spider! Don't pick that up—ohh—you did! That's disgusting! Ya know, when I told Jenny I'd spend the morning trying to steer you back to that lovely gem of a lady in the other cottage—I definitely didn't think I was going to be suffering through this!"

"Hymenoptera Apocrita," Grissom said with wonder he approached a perfect specimen. He opened his little glass jar and slowly approached the bee, not seeing how Dickie now stood about ten feet away, nervously batting away the insects that were buzzing around him.

"It's a wasp," Dickie said with irritation as he swatted at another that flew past his face.

"Ah," Grissom said as he continued to approach the bee and place the jar over top of it and sliding the lid on top. "but not an ordinary wasp."

Dickie stopped his movements as he looked at Grissom with wide eyes. Grissom stood erect with his own wide eyes as he stared ahead of himself, not understanding why he just said that. It was almost as if someone had commented on his specimen.

"You heard me!" Dickie whispered but Grissom merely shrugged his shoulders again and put the jar into the bag he had slung over his shoulder then started toward another bee that was walking along a leaf.

This time Grissom didn't respond as one of his little friends decided a good roosting place would be down the inside of Dickie's tuxedo collar. At first Dickie's shoulder twitched, then it twitched again. This time he reached behind himself as his fingers slid down the back of his white collar. His high-pitched scream alerted a flock of birds as they flew out of the trees above them and he started turning in rapid circles as he tried to get the bee out of his clothing.

"That's it," Grissom almost cooed as he allowed the bee to walk across the back of his hand. "You're as harmless as can be. Only the uneducated fear you."

"Uneducated, am I? I have you know that I spent four years at Harvard!" Dickie stopped his circles and quickly looked up at the hive that was hanging from a limb and snapped his fingers. His intention was to prove to Grissom just how anxious one could get when dealing with angry bees! But as the hive bounced off the ground, Grissom slowly started walking out of the wooded area. Dickie, on the other hand, screamed as they swarmed up around him and sent him on a dead run to the beach below where he ran into the water then turned to look at a very calm Grissom going up onto his back porch and inside.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"Oh! Come on!" Jenny yelled at Sara as she ran up the beach. The platinum blonde buffed her nails as she reclined on her airy chaste lounge that kept up with Sara's energetic jogging. "This is—!"

"Go on vacation!" Sara huffed as she continued pumping her long legs with sweat rolling down her throat and dripping between her tank top covered breasts. "Get some rest and revitalize yourself! Bastard!"

"Well," Jenny said as she sat up along the edge of the invisible piece of furniture with her legs dangling but still a good three feet from the sand below. "This is certainly the beginnings of a wonderful relationship! And look at you! You look like a pig—sweating like that! Don't you know you never let a man see you sweat? Just what are you doing this for? If you have this much energy—go next door and jump your neighbor's bones! And fine bones he seems to have, indeed! Oh," she began with sympathy. "come on. I know men can be difficult to see what's in front of them—blind even. Hell, it took Dickie three months to get up the nerve to ask me out! And it didn't matter that he was asking out every other woman that worked for his father—no! He was blind to ME! Bastard!" She looked over at Sara again. "So—just what ARE you doing this for?"

"Fat ass," escaped Sara's mouth, making her knit her brows as she wondered where THAT came from.

"Fat ass?" Jenny asked with alarm then twisted on the lounge as she tried to see her own curvy posterior. "Oh, god! Maybe that's why Dickie took so long to ask me out! Jeez! Is my ass too fat?"

"No one likes a fat ass," Sara blurted, this time pausing half a second before starting her run again.

"Oh, my God," Jenny wailed quietly as she hopped off the air and landed on her heeled feet next to Sara, quickly getting in stride next to her. "I've got a fat ass!"

"I don't have a fat ass," Sara said snidely to herself as she continued to run.

"I know," Jenny agreed as she started to get out of breath then she fell a step behind and looked at Sara's shorts-covered bottom. "You've got a—perky behind. So why are you doing this? You don't need to do it. I do, though. . ." She followed Sara up the beach. "So? What about this guy next door? You like him a lot, huh?"

Sara continued running, her mind on Grissom as it usually was. Damn him, didn't he realize how much his mood swings hurt her? Didn't he realize the hot to cold attitude upset her more than if he'd just be cold to her and stay that way. No. He always gives out little signals to entice her back in.

"Fuck signals!" Sara blurted.

"Excuse me?" Jenny huffed as she tried to stay next to Sara and she looked at her full of questions. "Did you say what I thought you said? Is he giving you signals that he wants to. . .well that's great! It won't be as hard as I thought if he's giving you signals that he wants to spoon with you!"

"I mean it—just fuck the signals and leave him behind—that's what I ought to do!"

"Ohhh," Jenny said with disappointment. "That's what you meant. No! No! Don't give up, honey! He's here—waiting for you! You've just got to look past your window and see what I saw last night. Yowsa! If you'd have seen that—you'd have been on him like a tick on a dog! But then I suppose you must've seen something you liked—you had some mighty crazy thoughts going on when me and Dickie rode into town last week. God, honey! Aren't you going to slow down soon? I'm so tired I could just drop over dead! Oh, that's right—I am dead."

"Gotta keep going. Gotta keep going," Sara urged herself making Jenny roll her eyes as she struggled beside her.

"Okay—fine." She ran farther. "We'll keep going. Look, all I'm saying is," she started to sing but her voice cracked at the exertion. "Love is in the air." She put her hand to her throat. "Jeez, that sounded horrible. Anyway, romance is there for the taking."

A flock of birds flew out of the woods ahead of them, slowing Sara's stride as she watched them, then the sound of a scream filled the air. Jenny watched as Dickie came running out of the woods and straight into the lake, then she looked at the man casually looking at something in a bag as he walked to the rear entrance of his cottage and went inside.

"Sara! Look!" Jenny yelled but Sara was already peeling her tank top over her head, leaving only a bathing suit top on before turning toward her front door and jogging up the stairs and inside.

Jenny dropped onto the sand in an attempt to catch her breath then rolled over and looked at the phantom standing knee deep in water. "What—are you doing?"

"Bees! He collects them! They flew all over. They went down my shirt!" He started walking out of the lake and stopped to give her a hand and assisted her to her feet. "What's wrong with you? You look all—sweaty. We can't sweat!"

"Yeah?" She asked as she turned on him. "And we can't feel it when bees sting us either!"

"Well, I don't like them! I hate insects!" He lifted his nose to the air. "They were flying all around me. They were supposed to scare him into coming back to see her—but I think he rather enjoyed it—the bees swarming all around him, I mean."

"I feel sick, snookums," Jenny said sadly as she leaned on his shoulder for support. "I think I'm going to vomit."

"We don't vomit, either," Dickie said dully, bringing fiery eyes up to meet his and making him smile sheepishly.

"Well, I feel like it! That woman ran all the way back up the beach!"

"But you were running with her. Why? You never run like that. It isn't. . .well. . .something that you practice."

"Nevermind," she told him then started walking away from him, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her back into his arms.

"Ya know, you look really rather enticing right now. Maybe you ought to run like that more often," he said as he lowered his lips and slid them over hers.

"Oh, Dickie," she breathed. "How much longer are we going to have to wait?"

"Only until we get them to make love. Then we can finally. . ."

"If only we would've taken your car instead of mine—we would've been married and had children and grandchildren. Oh, Dickie. . ." She started to sniff against his shoulder and he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, flicking a bee off it before offering it to her.

"Now, now, my love. There's no sense going over it again. What's done is done. We'll have our chance soon enough. I'm sure of it."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Grissom put his specimens away when he got inside. This little vacation wasn't turning out so bad, after all. He moved into his bedroom and started to undress, glancing at the window shade as he did so. He had to smile to himself when he remembered the previous night when the blind snapped open and he came over to close it. He could've sworn he saw two people standing outside, but when he moved, he saw that it was only his reflection and the playing of light on the glass. Then today in the woods. . .well, he must be hearing things. He went into the shower and turned on the water, allowing it to run down over his body. His thoughts automatically turned back to the brunette beauty who usually haunted his dreams and he wondered what she was doing at that moment. Was she on some California beach sunbathing that long, lean body of hers. Was she being watched by some young bronzed, muscle-bound hunk? Son-of-a-bitch! Whoever he is—he better keep his damned hands off her! The thought struck him and he shook his head. He had no right to do anything. What did he do but watch her and fantasize? Too afraid to do anything about what he wanted. But if he could. . .

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Sara stood in her shower, letting the hot water stream down over her. She poured some shampoo into her hand then gasped when for some reason it nearly emptied. Sighing, she put it up to her hair and lathered it up. Jeez, it sure was a lot of lather. She thought about what Grissom was probably doing about right now. Probably ankle deep in dead bodies and not even thinking about her; about how much he might miss her; about how much she might miss him. She grabbed the shower gel and started rubbing it on her arms. When he sat there and told her to go get some rest and revitalize. . .boy, she'd like to revitalize alright! Her hands started moving over her shoulders and then moved down to lather her breasts. She'd revitalize right on the end of his. . .Damn! What happened to the frickin' water?

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" Sara growled at the shower head that was refusing to release any water. She grabbed the handles and turned them but to no avail. "Not now! I'm all soaped up!"

"Hmph," Jenny said as she stood in the tub in front of her, holding her hand over the nozzle that should be spraying down on the other woman. "I'd say now is the perfect time! I saw where your hands were heading! I definitely don't want to have to stand here and see you. . .well, not see, because I would've turned around. . .now if I'd be in that guy's shower and he started to. . .ya know. . .I would've watched him. . .but not you. Boring! But I would've had to listen to you and that would've been rather defeating our purposes! Go on—go see why the water isn't working. The main thingy to control the water is out back, below the back porch."

"Son-of-a-bitch!" Sara said as she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself then stepped out of the shower, not seeing how Jenny quickly turned off the faucet. "I have no idea where the stupid main valve is!"

Jenny jumped out of the shower behind Sara and her heel got caught on the bath mat and made her stumble as Sara walked out the door.

"Damn heels! I should've been wearing my flats when I died!" She rushed out to the kitchen where Sara was looking beneath the kitchen sink. Just as Sara reached for the handle and tried to turn it, Jenny blocked the faucet.

"Great!" Sara turned it back off and turned toward the back door. "Now what do I do?"

"Out back!" Jenny said as she ran up to her but Sara didn't respond. "Out back! Under the porch!" Still nothing. "OUT BACK, DAMMIT!"

"Maybe if I look out back," Sara said offhandedly and started out the door.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Dickie turned off the shower and followed Grissom as he wrapped a towel around his waist. He nervously wiped the sweat from his brow as the man went straight through the house and out the back door. Dickey followed him and looked up at Jenny as she followed Sara out of the other building.

"What's wrong with you?" Jenny asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Ha! Ha!" He said then nodded toward the man who was squatting in front of the main valve and looking at it intently. "He was thinking about her in the shower! He got—well—rather excited and damned near poked me with his stick!"

"Dickie!" Jenny warned. "If we don't do something—they'll take care of their urges themselves and never get together! I mean, look at them! Here they are, wearing only towels—and they're only twenty yards away from one another! She's too busy looking for the water thingy and he's too busy trying to fix his!"

"Here she comes! Hurry, snookums! Don't let her go back in the house!"

"What am I supposed to do?" Jenny asked as she threw her hands up in the air and started running toward the dark-haired woman. This time her heel got caught between the blocks of the rear sidewalk and she tripped.

"Baby doll!" Dickie yelled as he watched Jenny go down, then smiled when he saw that she grabbed onto Sara's towel as she went, pulling it completely off the woman and bringing a surprised shriek from the brunette. "Well, that ought to work!"

Grissom spun around, hearing what he believed to be a scream and saw the most beautiful body he had ever witnessed. His eyes slowly traveled up as the woman grabbed for her towel, then stopped as her eyes met his.

"Sara?"

"Griss?"


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I must apologize for my delay in posting anything. School has consumed all my time and this is the first chance I had to sit down and write. I haven't forgotten my two other stories that I've got going. I just need to finish this one, which will have several more chapters then I'll go back to the other two. Thank you so much to everyone who has been reviewing—it certainly helps to have you behind me and letting me know that I'm doing things right. I couldn't do it without you! And to those of you who want Lady in Red and Back in San Francisco, please be patient—I truly love the fact that you haven't forgotten them—I haven't either. And to those of you who have fallen in love with Jenny and Dickie—take a look in NNDB and look up Jean Harlow and William Powell, as they are, in my mind, Jenny and Dickie. I think they fit perfectly—do you? So without further delay, here is chapter 3 of the Haunting of Pale Moon.

Chapter 3

"Sara." His eyes widened as he stood up and looked at her grabbing for her towel.

"Griss." She met his gaze with her huge eyes.

"Sara?" He knit his brow in confusion.

"Griss?" She cocked her head to the side in disbelief.

Jenny and Dickie stood between them, watching their shocked expulsions as if watching a tennis match.

"Sara!" His eyes widened again as he took a step toward her.

"Griss!" She stumbled backward as she tried to reach behind herself for the door handle then a squeal escaped from her as she looked down at the towel that was now only covering the front of her body.

Jenny put her hands on his shapely hips as she watched Sara turn and bolt through the doorway.

"Oh my god! Look at her run! Just five minutes ago she was in there thinking about what she'd like to do to him as she. . .well. . .nevermind."

"She what?" Dickie asked with interest as he moved toward Sara's house and tried to look into her bedroom window. "What was she doing? I want this one. You take care of "him"—he's boring!"

"I thought you said he was poking you!" She raised a well-plucked brow at him. "Alright. "I'll" take care of him."

Dickie turned around and looked at Jenny who was nearly to the point of tapping her foot in irritation with him. "You will not! Keep your eyes off him!"

"No!"

Jenny turned and stomped back toward Grissom who was still staring at the door that had banged closed. She stood behind him and rested her hands on his bare shoulders as she peeked over his back to where Dickie was staring at them. Grissom let out a massive shiver but remained still and Jenny smiled devilishly at her beau.

"Jeanette—I'm telling you to stop touching him—right now!"

"Are you going to keep ogling her?" She watched as Dickie flashed a glance over his shoulder toward the window then looked back at her. "Fine."

She moved her hands down from Grissom's shoulders and slid them up his sides and around to his chest as she continued to watch Dickie. He marched over and stood directly in front of Grissom as he stared at Jenny. This time he had his hands on his hips in frustration.

"Jeanette, stop touching. . ." Dickie began but at that moment Grissom started walking toward Sara's back door, moving right though the apparition and making the tuxedo-clad gentleman close his eyes and shudder. ". . .oh, I hate when they do that!"

Jenny started giggling at him then squeaked when he reached out and grabbed onto her, pulling her up into his arms, but the sound of knocking behind them turned them to watch Grissom as he pounded on Sara's back door. They continued to stand in each other's arms as they watched with great interest then looked back at one another before breaking apart as Dickie hurried to stand along the side of the porch, only a few inches from Grissom. Jenny looked in the window to where Sara was grabbing clothes and pulling them on so quickly that she nearly fell on the floor when her foot got caught in her shorts.

"Sara!" Grissom called to her as he pounded on the door again and Sara turned to look toward the back of the house then yanked a tee-shirt over her head.

She started on a mad dash back through her bedroom doorway and through the kitchen where she stopped abruptly at the door and patted her hair back in place, only to groan when she realized she hadn't rinsed the shampoo out of it.

"No, no, no. Not looking like this!" She whispered to herself.

"Sara! Open the door."

Sara sighed and slowly reached for the handle, then pulled it open. Grissom looked at her hair and gave her a small smile. She swallowed with difficulty as she looked back at him.

"Say something, honey!" Jenny said as she walked up to the other side of Grissom. "Now's your chance."

"I ran out of water," Sara said stupidly.

"I see," Grissom told her. "I was having trouble with mine as well. So—this is the beach vacation you won?"

"Afraid so. What are you doing here?"

"I won the same thing and was given an ultimatum—either go on vacation or be given a five-day suspension."

"They'd never do that," Sara said as her eyes kept wandering down over Grissom's chest to the towel he was holding onto with a firm grip.

"Hmm, maybe not. I think they just wanted a week away from me." He became quiet as he looked at how her tee-shirt was clinging to her still wet breasts then moved his gaze back up to her face. "I—um—could come in and check your water—see what's wrong."

"But, what about "your" water?"

"It seems to be working from the main valve."

"Mine too. It has to be something between out there—and in here."

"I could take a look."

"I think I know how to fix. . ." Sara started but stopped speaking when she saw something from the corner of her eye. She looked again but nothing was there.

"DON'T!" Jenny cried as she frantically waved her hands in front of Sara's face. "Let him in to fix it! Now isn't the time to declare your abilities as a plumber!"

"You were saying?" Grissom asked as he looked in the direction Sara had looked, not seeing the platinum blond bombshell standing at his side and how her silver satin dress clung to her curves then he looked back at Sara.

"I—uh—what?" She looked back at him.

"I said, do you want me to check your shower?"

"Yeah," Sara said, a bit baffled as she looked at the area she had imagined seeing a whitish haze, then looked back to him. "Sure. Come in. I can get you a cup of coffee. I made some this morning before I went out on my run."

Grissom started to take a step but stopped and grabbed onto his towel more tightly, tugging at it before taking a step inside. Dickie looked down to where Jenny was holding onto the terry cloth.

"Would you let go of that?" Dickie hissed.

"Well, I just thought if he had the opportunity to see hers, then she should be able to see his!"

"They're not playing doctor, Jenny. Anyway, you only wanted to see what he has beneath that towel, yourself."

"Oh, Dickie, don't be so suspicious! You're always suspicious!" They stood on the porch and watched as Grissom and Sara walked through the kitchen. "Damn. I wish we could go in. What good is it being ghosts when we can't even go inside the building."

Dickie looked at her, then back to where Grissom and Sara were disappearing into the bathroom door.

"I—I—don't know that we—can't—actually go in," Dickie said hesitantly and Jenny turned very slowly to eye him suspiciously.

"What—do you mean—you don't know? You told me years ago that we couldn't go inside the buildings. You said you tried once and it felt as if you were being electrocuted!"

He looked at her with a guilt-ridden face then flushed before he exclaimed, "Well, you were all anxious to get into that room when Clark Gable was staying in there!" He told her then went on in a falsetto voice, "Oooooh, Clark! He's soooooo handsome! He's sooooo sexy!"

She stomped her foot and hissed at him. "You mean I "could've" gone in there with him!"

Dickie looked away and replied indignantly. "I don't know. I never tried to go in." Then he looked back at Jenny. "But it kept you out! Didn't it!"

"DICKIE!" She turned back and they looked in the doorway, then Jenny slowly lifted her hand and moved it through the doorway. "Nothing. Nothing! Dammit, Dickie!"

They looked at each other and both tried to run inside, getting stuck in the doorway before popping through like corks shooting from a champagne bottle. Jenny flew up against the table and knocked it nearly three feet across the floor as Dickie landed against the counter and crashed into the coffee pot, spilling steaming hot coffee all over himself. He looked down at his hands and arms that were now covered in the liquid.

"Boy, I'm glad I can't feel that," he said to himself then stood up and turned toward the front of the house as Jenny yanked the table back into place.

"What was that!" Sara's voice came from the hallway and some movement was heard just as Jenny and Dickie started toward the doorway that lead into the corridor but as they were about to step toward it, Sara and Grissom stepped out and the two phantoms ran directly through them.

What would have been a normal pass-through changed dramatically as they bounced off the door jam and landed back inside the solid bodies behind them.

Jenny looked at Grissom with extreme nervousness then lifted her hand, looking down to see that she was now lifting Sara's hand. She looked back over at Grissom again to see him looking down at his hands as well before looking up at her through Dickie's eyes.

"Jenny?"

"Dickie?" She stepped closer and stood practically nose-to-nose as she peered into Grissom's/Dickie's eyes. "Are you in there?"

"I'm here. Are "you" in "there?"

"Oooooh, Dickie!" She said with fright. "Now what do we do?"

Dickie looked at Sara/Jenny and she could see the light begin to shine from his eyes. "We could. . ."

"No! We're not doing any such thing! That would be like. . .cheating!"

"No it wouldn't, baby! Just think—you're in there—I'm in here! We've got functional bodies! We could!"

"Absolutely not! You'd be doing it but looking at. . ." Sara/Jenny spread her arms as she looked down at herself. ". . .this! I mean—her!"

"Ah, come on, dumpling! We haven't done it in eighty-five goddamned years!" He started walking toward her and put his hands on her shoulders, stroking her with his thumbs. "Come on, snookums! Let's make whoopee!"

He licked his lips and leaned toward Sara/Jenny but was met with a swift punch to the eye that knocked him backwards and popped Dickie right out of the back of Grissom.

"I said NO!" Sara/Jenny said forcefully, bringing Grissom's confused eyes up to Sara.

"I beg your pardon," Grissom said in bewilderment.

"Ooooh!" Sara/Jenny said as she looked back at Grissom then looked to where Dickie was standing against the wall watching them. "I—uh—uh—said—I said—OH NO! Look! The coffee pot broke!"

"Oh," Grissom looked back to where the black liquid was dripping onto the floor then looked around for something to wipe it up.

"In the bathroom, gorgeous. The towels are in the bathroom." Jenny's eyes widened as she realized what she just called the older man and he turned to look at her.

"What did you say?" Asked Grissom.

"I said the towels are in the bathroom."

"Before that."

"I don't know. But if you stand there asking stupid questions, we won't need the towels at all and it will be all over the floor."

"Right," he said doubtfully then walked back toward the hallway.

"Or, I could just use that towel you have wrapped around your waist," she called after him and started giggling, then looked back to where Dickie was still watching her. "Don't stand there doing nothing! Help me get out of here!"

"I don't know how to get you out. I'm not an expert on these things." He remained leaning against the wall, evidently getting a kick out of her predicament.

"Well—I hit him! And I knocked you out! Try that!"

"You want me to punch you in the eye?"

"NO! Slap me on the back!" She started stepping from foot to foot. "Hurry, Dickie! He'll be back any moment!"

"Fine," he said nonchalantly then came over and gave her a quick jab on her back, only to have his hand travel through her body and making Sara shudder violently.

"Ewww! Boy, you thought it felt bad from our side—you ought to try it from inside here!" Jenny told Dickie.

"It didn't work!" Dickie said, now alarmed.

"No kidding!"

"But snookums! You can't stay in there!"

"I don't know what to do!" They watched as Grissom came back down the hall toward them and Jenny whispered with great anxiety. "Dickie!"

"Start coughing!" Dickie suggested.

"Huh?"

"Choke! He'll have to clap you on the back! Cough!"

Jenny started hacking and when Grissom started to pass by her as if not paying her any mind, she started coughing louder.

"Grab your throat, Jen! Make him see you're choking!"

"Hooooocccccckkkkkkk!" Sara/Jenny growled and when Grissom still didn't look, she went up to him and kicked his shin.

He looked at her. "Sara?"

"Chok—ing. . ." she got out.

"On what? You weren't eating anything!"

Jenny rolled her eyes then looked at the box on the counter. "Soap!"

"Jeanette!" Dickie said with frustration. "You weren't eating soap!"

She looked back at him helplessly then grabbed her throat again. "Hhhhhooooocccccckkkkkk!"

"God! Sara!" Grissom moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her chest, going into an immediate Heimlich.

"What the hell's he doing to you?" Dickie asked as he watched with raised brows.

Jenny looked back at him in confusion. "My-back!"

"You're back?" Grissom gave her another squeeze and when she still coughed he bent her over and gave her two quick jabs to her shoulders.

"Damn!" Jenny said as she landed on the floor in a heap but when she looked up, her face touched Sara's.

"Who are. . ." Sara got out weakly, then passed out and landed on the floor next to Jenny.

"Ooooh, she saw me, Dickie!" Jenny started to scramble to her feet with Dickie's assistance.

"Sara?" Grissom's concern-filled voice turned their attention back to where he was kneeling on the floor next to the tall brunette and checking her breathing. "Sara? Honey, are you okay?"

"Oooh, Dickie—he does love her—he called her "honey," Jenny gushed as she leaned her head against Dickie's shoulder but he kept his gaze focused on the couple still on the floor.

"Don't get too excited, my little chick-pea. He was calling the ugliest insects you ever saw the same thing out there."

"Sara?" Grissom looked around the room then bent lower and lifted her into his arms until she was leaning back against him. When she still didn't respond, he lifted her completely and walked with her out the back door again.

"Wow!" Jenny said as they followed him to the doorway. "I didn't realize my face had that kind of effect on people. She nearly dropped dead!"

"No, dear, she didn't drop dead. Merely passed out."

"Sara? Baby? Come on, wake up." Grissom lowered her onto the steps of the porch as he sat with her across his lap and her head was lying against his shoulder.

"Gris? Grissom?" Sara slowly came to again then looked around herself as if she were completely lost. "What happened?"

"I don't know. You started choking then passed out."

"Choking? I don't even remember eating anything." She slowly put her hand up to her hair and cringed at the still sloppy presentation she made. "My hair. It's all full of soap."

"You can rinse off in my shower. Yours is still clogged."

"Clogged?" Dickie looked at Jeanette with knit brows. "Why is it still clogged?"

"I don't know," she answered. "It should be fine by now."

"I—need my things." Sara looked directly into Grissom's blue eyes and felt the earth shake beneath her.

"I'll gather your things and bring them over to my place. I don't want you back in there until we know what's clogging your water and what made you pass out. There might be some kind of gas back-up in there."

"Oh!" Jenny said with excitement. "This is even better than we planned. He's letting her stay over there with him!"

"We'll be on our way in no time!" Dickie said as he rubbed his hands together in excitement.

"Come on. We'll get you rinsed off then we'll work on this water problem."

Sara gingerly got up from Grissom's lap and he took her by the arm as he escorted her into his cottage with Jenny and Dickie following closely behind. Soon she was inside the shower, letting his warm water rinse all the shampoo from her hair and in no time she was stepping from the bathroom wearing fresh clothing again. She went to the kitchen where she found him sitting at his table with two cups of coffee waiting.

"I really can't believe they sent us both to the same place without telling us," Sara said a bit self-consciously as she moved to sit across the table from him.

"I'm not sure they knew it—but I guess they figured if anyone needed a vacation it was you and I."

"Are you here all week?"

"Afraid so. I arrived yesterday afternoon. It's odd that I haven't seen you since just awhile ago."

"Well, I wasn't out and about until this morning when I went for my run. Up until then I spent the night pretty much reading and then went to bed early." She watched as he nodded in understanding or agreement, she wasn't sure. "What have you been doing?"

"I was out collecting specimens this morning. I want to catalogue them. Do you have plans for this afternoon? If not—I could use some help."

"Uh—no. No plans, really. I was just going to lie out in the sun and maybe go into the water."

"I hope you brought lots of sun screen. That isn't good for your skin, ya know." Grissom took a sip of his coffee, not seeing how Jenny's eyes rolled as she leaned against his counter behind him.

"That isn't good for the skin," she mimicked. "Oh, boy! This guy's loads of fun, isn't he? What are you doing, babydoll? Let's get hot and heavy and go look at bugs!"

"Now, dear," Dickie nodded his head toward Sara. "I don't think she minds. She's hanging on his every word. I think she'd do just about anything he suggested just to spend time with him."

"Would you like to see what I've collected so far?" Grissom asked with a bit of excitement as he looked at Sara and she smiled at him in such a way that Dickie's arm fell off the counter where he had been leaning against it.

"My God! Look at that smile!"

"Ohh," Jeanette giggled. "She's got it bad for him." She moved to sit on the table between Sara and Grissom as she looked at Grissom's face and saw how his eyes took on a brightness that was new to him. "And he's got it bad for her too."

"Sure." Sara got to her feet. "Let's go look at what you've collected."

Jeanette sighed deeply as she and Dickie watched the two leave the kitchen and head to the living room. She turned and looked at her companion. "Unless they're really strange—there's no way they're going to get all hot and bothered over a container of bugs."

"I don't know, sugar," Dickie remarked. "You didn't see how he reacted to them as he was collecting them. With this guy, anything's possible."

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Dickie." She got up and looked around the kitchen, inspecting its contents until she came to a bottle that was hidden halfway behind a stack of magazines. "Oh, lookee here! He's not as straight-laced as we thought."

Dickie moved to stand next to her and looked down at the bottle of vodka staring back up at them.

"Should we?" Jenny giggled.

"Definitely!" Dickie agreed and between the two of them, they twirled their fingers as they pointed to the bottle and watched as the lid was unscrewed, then floated across the short distance until it was poised above the cups of coffee.

With a tilting motion of their hands, the liquid went into the hot liquid then started to stand up, only to have Jenny tilt it again to pour even more of the clear fluid into their caffeine.

"Let the party begin!" Jenny giggled then quickly put the bottle back as they listened to Grissom and Sara coming back to the kitchen.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Several hours later Dickie sat on an imaginary chair close to where Grissom was seated as he stared at a large hairy specimen that was crawling in a jar in front of him. His face showed his distaste for it and his nose would lift in disgust as it would raise its head (or, Dickie wondered—was it its butt?) in the air, then squirm and latch it's long spiky feet (were they feet? For all Dickie knew—they might be his intestines trying to escape out of such a hideous little body!) onto the sides of the glass.

"Wow! You make really good coffee," Sara said as she sat on the floor of the living room with a dozen jars spread out in front of her. "This is my fourth cup and I'm not feeling wired at all."

"Me neither," Grissom said as he removed one of the lids only to have a large grasshopper-type insect jump out and land on Sara's forehead above her right eyebrow.

Jenny's squeal bounced off the walls but Sara and Grissom didn't hear it as the platinum blonde jumped away from where she had been sitting next to Sara. "Good Lord! That thing's huge! And she's just sitting there with it on her face!"

"A match made in heaven," Dickie said as he patted the air next to where he was sitting and waited for Jenny join him. "Oh, no—that's right. "We're" a match made in heaven. If these two can ever get their heads out of their. . .lab coats. . .and get some loving done—"then" we'll be a match in heaven!"

Grissom sat there and looked at how Sara was trying to watch her little visitor as she scrunched up her nose and started blowing out of the side of her mouth. He started chuckling as he pointed at her. "You look funny."

Sara picked up the little container and put it over the bug, but held it against her forehead as she looked through the bottom at Grissom.

"So do you." She dropped the jar and started laughing at her own joke then stopped when the grasshopper jumped off her face and scampered across the room. "Aren't you going to get that?"

"Yeah," he sighed although he remained seated on the chair, took another drink of his coffee then stared at the bottom of his cup. He looked up at Sara with a sheepish grin. "I need more coffee. Do you?"

"I will in a second." She tipped the cup back and drank down its contents then tried to get to her feet but somehow the room seemed a little lopsided and she was having trouble navigating it. Grissom grabbed onto her arm and helped her out through the hallway to the kitchen. She stopped suddenly and looked at the pot of coffee sitting on the counter. "Hey. When did you make another pot?"

"I don't know," he answered as he poured himself a cup. "Who cares. Come here—I'll fill ya up."

"Dr. Grissom, I do believe you're compromising me," Sara said in a low, teasing voice as she raised an eyebrow at him and he chuckled in response then lifted his cup toward her.

"A toast."

She stood there and watched him as he smiled back to her then after thirty seconds started giggling again. "A toast to what?"

"Ento—ento—entomology, of course." He clicked his cup against hers and started drinking down the coffee.

"To bugs!" Sara agreed and started drinking. "And all their friends! Little suckers!"

"I think he's had quite enough," Jenny said from where she was now sitting on the table.

"He didn't get to the romance yet," Dickie told her.

"She tried! She couldn't have been more blatant! And he wants to talk about bugs!"

"Not all bugs are suckers," Grissom told her and he started back through the hallway again and flopped on the chair he had vacated earlier.

"Not all women are either!" Sara told him and when he looked at her through disappointed eyes, she started laughing again.

"Ahh," he moaned, then stared at her inquiringly. "Aren't they? I mean-are you?"

"Am I what?" Sara said as she wiped at the tears that had formed in her eyes.

"Oh—my—God!" Jenny exclaimed next to a chuckling Dickie. "Is he asking what I "think" he's asking."

"Well, he aint whistling Dixie," Dickie snorted.

"How crude! How utterly crude!"

"Are you what?" Grissom asked.

"That's what I said. Am I what?"

"I don't know. Ya know what? I'm really feeling like I need to go to bed right now. How are you feeling?" He got to his feet and moved until he was standing in front of her, making her smile disintegrate as he nearly touched noses with her. "Do you feel like going to bed?"

Jenny squealed with excitement and Dickie tried to slap Grissom on the back, but his hand went straight through. "Dammit," Dickie voiced his disappointment but let it slide immediately as he smiled at Grissom. "That's my boy! Show her who's a man!"

"Uh. . ." Sara managed to get out as she watched how his eyes were moving over her face before resting on her lips. "Yeah. . .sure."

"Your night clothes are over there," he said then started stumbling across the hall to the bedroom.

Jenny looked at the suitcase Grissom had brought over earlier then she looked back at Sara who was simply standing there watching Grissom walk into his bedroom, but not seeing Dickie walking right behind him.

"Alright, boyo! You can do this! I know you can!" Dickie was saying nearly in Grissom's face. "Give it the good heave-ho! Do it for the Gipper! Give it the old college-try!"

In the meantime Jenny was nearly jumping up and down in anticipation as she watched a stupefied Sara.

"Come on, girl! Get those clothes off! Forget about putting anything else on! Hell! He invited you—get naked!"

"Did you say. . ." Sara dropped her cup of coffee on the floor as she turned more fully toward the doorway to Grissom's bedroom.

"Yes! He did!" Jenny nearly shouted and when Sara still refused to budge, she started grabbing onto Sara's clothes. With a few tugs she had Sara's shirt opened and was pulling it down over her arms.

"Hey," Sara said quietly as she watched the clothing dropping from her. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing, sweetie!" Jenny said as she tossed Sara's shirt onto the sofa then turned back to her. "You're just gonna get some well-deserved lovin'!"

"I'm gonna get some lovin'?" Sara asked, making Jenny stop her movements as she looked very closely at Sara.

"Do you hear me?" Jenny asked slowly.

"Yeah," Sara said quietly as she looked back toward Grissom's bedroom. "I hear ya. I'm gonna get some lovin'."

"Do you "see" me?"

Sara turned and closed her eyes almost all the way as she looked at Jeanette. "I do—if I squint my eyes real tight. You're fuzzy—but you're beautiful."

"Oh," Jenny smiled as she patted her hair. "Thank you."

"Are you my angel?" Sara slurred.

"Angel? Yeah—yeah—I'm your angel. I guess that's one way of looking at it."

"What kind of an angel are you?"

"I'm the—get your butt in that bedroom and make love to that man before it's too late—angel!" She blurted but when Sara looked at her doubtfully, she corrected herself. "I'm the "love" angel. Now come on, honey! You've got to help-out here! I know you're feeling a bit tipsy but. . ."

"A bit?" Sara asked. "I'm frickin' drunker than a skunk! On coffee! What kind of coffee do they make at this damned lake? I'm so high I'm seeing angels." At this last comment she started giggling again.

"That's right, honey—you laugh and blame it on the coffee. But for crying out loud! Get your clothes off!"

"O—kay!" Sara said obligingly as she started to push her shorts down but stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"You're looking."

"Oh," Jenny said at the realization that Sara didn't know she had seen her naked before just as she had seen dozens of naked ladies over the past eighty-five years. "Okay, sweetie, I'll turn my back."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"I can't believe you actually told her to come into your room!" Dickie said as he took the cup out of Grissom's hand and sat it on the nightstand. "How very. . .forceful of you!"

Grissom looked at his hand, wondering where the drink was that he had just been holding then saw it on the nightstand. He shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't concerned with how it got there. His brain was too fuzzy to concentrate on such trivial things. He could hear some noises coming from outside and he stumbled toward his window. He looked out and saw the man who had brought him to the cottage—what was his name? Skipper? And did that make the little guy next to him Gilligan? Grissom chuckled at the thought. What the hell were they doing crawling on the ground like that? Oh—that's right. He called and told them the water in Sara's cottage wasn't running through the pipes. They must be checking the crawl-space beneath the cottage to see what was wrong. He turned back toward his bureau and wondered how his shirt had gotten off his body and put on top of that piece of furniture.

"Hey—what the. . ." he said as his shorts were yanked down over his hips.

"No time for formalities, bucko!" Dickie said. "You're getting ready for a date!"

"But shouldn't I be getting "dressed" for a date? Not undressed?" Grissom looked at the man who was taking the shorts he was stepping out of and slowly stood up until he was face-to-face with him. He couldn't stop the chuckle that escaped him again as he heard commotion coming from Sara's cottage. "You look like the Thin Man."

"You see me."

Grissom moved to the edge of his bed and sat down then he looked at Dickie again and laughed, then stopped suddenly and fell back onto his pillows as he fell into a deep sleep.

"Ahhh," Sara said from the doorway as she stood there, still wearing her panties and bra. "He's so cute."

She took two steps into the room and flopped down onto the bed next to him and snuggled against his side. Jenny and Dickie stood there with wide eyes as they watched them both sleeping.

"They fell asleep!" Jenny said with disbelief. "They—fell—asleep!"

"I told you there was too much hooch in their coffee! Now, what good did it do?"

"How was I supposed to know they couldn't handle their booze? We drank this much the night we. . ." she started but stopped and changed the subject. "So, what do we do now?"

"Wait, I guess. What else can we do?"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Jenny sat on the bureau and watched as Grissom started to stir and hope blossomed in her again. "Come on, Romeo! Wake up and show her who's boss!"

She watched as he repositioned himself then fell back to sleep. She looked to where Dickie slept on the air on the other side of Grissom. She slowly floated over toward where he was resting peacefully. He looked so content and sweet. Dammit! He should be awake with her and trying to figure out how to get these two nerds together. She pulled her foot back and gave him a swift kick, resulting in him flipping over to look at her in shock, then immediately dropping to the floor.

"Dammit, Jenny! I wish you'd stop doing that!"

"Then get up and help get these two motivated."

"What do you want me to do?" He asked grumpily as he got up and brushed off his behind. "Sing sweet love songs into his ears? I don't think "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" will get him into the mood as easily as it used to get "me" ready for love."

"Everything" used to get "you" ready for love," she said snidely then stood next to him as they stared down at the sleeping couple.

Grissom felt something warm against his side and opened his eyes to see light coming in the window from something bright and unnatural. He glanced down to see Sara lying next to him. He couldn't, for the life of him, remember what had happened. His hand went immediately to his abdomen and then lower, feeling the boxers that still covered his midsection.

"Sara," he whispered then gently shook her. "Sara?"

"Mmmm," she groaned as she tried to bury her face against his neck but he pulled back and shook her again. She opened her eyes and looked at him, revealing her shock in her brown orbs. "Griss?"

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"What happened?"

"I—don't know. The last thing I remember, we were sitting in the room sorting through my find from this morning."

"We didn't. . .I mean. . .did we. . ."

"Highly unlikely," Grissom said as he moved away from her and grabbed his shorts that were close by. He got up and pulled them on over his boxers. He turned and looked at Sara as she self-consciously pulled the bedspread over her body. "I think whatever it was that backed up in your cottage—got over here and we were breathing it in without being aware of it. It's evidently gone now. We're lucky. We could've lain down to sleep and never woken up."

"But—our clothes."

"Must've had hot flashes of some sort and took off the clothes to cool down. I can't imagine what else we would've taken them off for."

Jenny took a step toward him in frustration but Dickie pulled her back. "Are you insane! You can't imagine. . ."

"I can," Sara said and Grissom looked over at her.

"Sara," he started and moved to sit on the bed next to her as he took her hand. "I'm sorry. I don't remember anything. I'd prefer to think we hadn't traveled down a road I'm not prepared to travel."

Sara pulled her hands from his and moved to get up. "I think I've heard this story before."

"Oh, honey," Jenny said as she ran to catch up with her. "Don't let him fool ya! He wants you so bad!"

"What's the matter with you?" Dickie asked Grissom. "You're hurting her!" When Grissom sat still and didn't go after her, Dickie did. "You don't deserve her."

"I know," Grissom whispered to himself.

"Come on, sweetie," Jenny tried again. "Go back in. Tell him the way it is! Don't let him do this to you!"

Dickie looked over at her, ready to agree but his expression turned to shock as he watched her start to disappear before him. "Jenny?"

He looked down at his own hands and watched as they started to disappear as well. Neither heard the two men from the cottage next door, nor did they see how they were hurrying out from beneath the building. Instead, they looked at where they hand landed on the beach.

"Dickie—what's going on?" Jenny scurried over to where Dickie was just sitting up. "Your clothes are all—dirty—and tattered."

"What just happened?" Dickie asked as he saw her clothing was in the same condition.

"Dickie—we're—solid. Something's happened!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The pounding on Grissom's front door turned Sara toward the sound as she closed her blouse then she watched as a fully clothed Grissom went to answer the person who was so insistent outside. He pulled the door open and found the gentleman who had brought him to the cottage.

"Yes? Have you found the problem with Sara's cottage?"

"Dr. Grissom," the man said nervously. "I think you better come and see this. I know you deal with this kind of thing everyday—but I'm not used to it!"

Grissom looked back at Sara and they both followed the man across the lawn separating the cottages and squatted down to look at the canvas tarp that was lying near the crawlspace with bits of dark gray satin and black cloth. He looked back to the man. "You moved it?"

"Yeah. We didn't know what was inside it. We just found it in an old rusted barrel. Someone must've put it under when they were building this place."

Sara could see something approaching them through the darkness and looked toward the front of the house to see a young couple walking down the path. The man was tall and rather handsome in a dapper-kind of way with a mustache and refined features but looked completely out of place in his "Kiss Me, I'm Irish," tee-shirt and the woman was absolutely stunning with hair so blonde it could practically be considered white. There was something about her that didn't quite jive with her tee-shirt as well as it shouted "I'm a Bitch, So What of It?" The proprietor of Pale Moon looked at them questioningly.

"May I help you?"

"Our boat," said the young woman. "It sank and we're trying to get back to our car."

Grissom reached down and pulled open the tarp as a rusty revolver and two skulls dropped out followed by a dirty sequined hand purse. He used a piece of tarp and opened the clasp where he found an old piece of paper. He carefully put it on the tarp then lifted a small heart-shaped locket. He tried to open it but it was rusted closed.

The blonde-haired woman looked down at the articles, clearly disturbed by the body parts and gun, but upon seeing the purse and locket she fell to the ground in a dead faint.

"Jenny!" The man with her went down on his knees and lifted her against him.

Sara went to her as her companion fanned her and she slowly came around. "Dickie? Dickie, that's. . .that's. . ."

"Shh. I know snooky bear. It'll be alright now." He helped her to her feet and looked at Sara. "Is there some place we can go until she feels better?"

"Yeah—sure. Bring her over here." Sara walked ahead of them and went back into Grissom's cottage then took them to the sofa where she lay down. She went to the kitchen and brought back a glass of water. "Here. Drink some of this. It will help."

"What's—what's going on over there?" Dickie asked as he moved to look out the door and saw Grissom walking back toward them.

"They—um—found some bodies under the building," Sara told him.

Grissom paused then moved past him to the living room where he stopped next to Sara. "It seems something beneath the cottage ruptured that barrel today and released the gases inside. It could be what made you pass out. But that doesn't explain what happened over here."

"What would've ruptured the barrel?" Sara asked.

"Could've been anything. By the looks of it, it's been there for decades. Maybe it just finally gave way and collapsed. At any rate, we've got two bodies that need investigated. I called the lab and Catherine's sending Nick and Greg here. They'll be collecting everything and taking it back." He paused as he looked at Sara. "Um, since your cottage is now a crime scene, you won't be able to stay there. I suppose you'll want to go back with the guys. If not, I can go and you can stay in this cottage."

Jenny looked over at Dickie and he looked back helplessly as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I suppose so," Sara said weakly.

"No!" Jenny spoke up, turning Sara's and Grissom's attention back to her. "I'm sorry. I guess I spoke out of turn—but this place looks big enough for the two of you to share. Gosh—this place looks big enough for two couples to stay in, even."

"Where are "you" staying?" Sara looked at the younger woman and smiled gently at her.

"We—aren't staying anywhere. That's the problem. We drove and drove out here and thought we'd take a little canoe ride—and the darned thing took in so much water it went down. Now we can't find our car. I don't know where we're going to stay tonight."

Sara looked over at Grissom and he looked back.

"You can stay here," Grissom said quietly. "I doubt we'll get much sleep tonight anyway."

"Are you sure, old chap?" Dickie asked, turning Grissom's curious eyes on him. "I mean—are you sure? We don't want to push ourselves on you."

Grissom looked back at Sara. "No—no. It's no problem. Stay here and you can find your car tomorrow. It's a big lake. It could be parked anywhere."

He turned and went back to the door.

"Then you'll both be staying also?" Jenny asked.

"Like he said," Sara explained. "We probably won't be sleeping much anyway. But you need some rest so why don't you try to sleep?"

Jenny looked up at her and nodded her head submissively then looked at Dickie. He moved to sit on the edge of the sofa next to her and he took her hand.

"We'll be fine," he told Sara. "I'll sit here and watch over her."

"I think you can pull the sofa out into a bed," Grissom said over his shoulder. "It might be more comfortable. Sara, I'll wait for Nick out here."

"Wait. There's got to be something I can do to help." She moved out the door behind him.

Jenny looked up at Dickie and felt a tear slip down her cheek. "Dickie—why are we here—like this? I thought we were going to go to. . .heaven. . .or someplace like that. . .when we got them together. Instead—they find our bodies and a gun! What happened, Dickie? I don't remember a gun!"

"I don't know, my love." He pulled her into his arms and hugged her to his chest. "You know that the last thing I remember was falling asleep in the car. We had stopped on the way to get married and decided to rest before going on. I was just so sleepy—we both were. That's why we decided to stop. But-I never thought there was a gun involved. Jeanette, dear. I don't remember a gun! Jenny, that means someone killed us."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Are you sure you don't want to go back?" Grissom watched Nick and Greg putting the things in the back of the Tahoe the following morning.

Sara shrugged her shoulders as she stood with her hands in her pockets, watching them drive away. "If I go back, I won't rest until I'm in the lab with them, anyway. If I'm here, maybe I can relax a bit. I've got five more days, remember? So do you."

"And no place to stay, unless you're willing to share the cottage for a while. I don't know what they're planning to do with yours. I suppose since there was no evidence of other bodies under there, it should be available soon."

"What about you? You seem to be chomping at the bit, wanting to run back to the lab."

This time he shrugged "his" shoulders as he turned back toward the front of his cottage and gave her a twisted smile. "I'll force myself to stay."

"What about those two in there? Last time I went inside, they were trying to call someone on my cell. They said they got through to her brother and he explained that he thought they went home with the friends who were with them so he drove the car they came in. Evidently it broke down or something after he got home and he can't come and pick them up right away." Sara followed Grissom up onto his porch and through the door where she found the young couple sitting up and holding onto one another's hands. She smiled at them, wishing she could find such a comfortable zone with Grissom but doubting at this point that it would happen. "Hey."

"I heard you," the blonde girl said. "I wasn't eavesdropping, just overheard. I'm sorry if we're an inconvenience. We don't want to be a bother to you."

"Perhaps we should try to find a way home," the young man suggested as he got to his feet. "Although I can't imagine who to call."

"You're fine here," Grissom said as he looked at them. "You can call your brother later and see if the car is repaired, then he can pick you up. Until then, there's no point in stressing over this."

"Thank you, Dr. Grissom," said the young man. He looked at Sara. "I'm sorry you're put out of your cottage, Sara. I'm sure after staying awake all night, you must be extremely tired. Jenny and I won't be needing the sofa any longer. We can wait outside until you've rested."

"Sara can use the bed," Grissom spoke up. "I'll sleep on the sofa."

"That's a fabulous idea," Jenny said enthusiastically as she attempted to get to her feet but paled significantly and started to sway. "Oh, Dickie, I'm not feeling so well."

"I don't think she should be getting up, Griss," Sara suggested as she looked at the woman with great concern. "She may have hurt herself when they went into the water. Maybe we should call a doctor."

"No," Jenny said weakly as she held onto Dickie's waist and he held his arms around her. "I'm fine—really. Maybe I do need to lie down a little longer, though." She looked at Grissom and batted her lashes at him. "Would you mind, terribly, Dr. Grissom?"

Grissom glanced at Sara then back to the woman. "No. No, not at all. I'll—uh—just catch a nap after Sara wakes up."

"Yeah, heaven forbid you'd want to catch a few hours of sleep in the same bed as me," Sara said quietly as she turned and started to the bedroom.

Grissom turned and looked at her, then looked at Dickie again. Dickie gave him a friendly smile and nodded toward the bedroom, urging him to follow her, which he did.

"Sara, wait."

Jenny and Dickie watched as they disappeared into the bedroom and closed the door then Jenny immediately moved away from her male counterpart.

"What are you doing? I thought you were sick!"

"I'm dead, Dickie! How can I be sick?" She started pacing the floor as she nervously bit at her thumb nail. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"Well, we decided there's not much we "can" do about what they found under the cottage. What's done is done. Come on, Jenny, now's our perfect opportunity. I'm here—you're here—they're closed away in there behind a solid door. Can't we "please" . . ."

"Oh, be quiet, Dickie. That's all you've got on your mind. Can't you be patient for crying out loud!" She continued to pace.

"Be patient?" He asked with huge eyes. "I've waited eighty-five years! How patient can I be? My God, snookums! If we "do" manage to get these two old birds together, and I have to listen to them making whoopee! I'll go crazy, sweetness!"

"That's it!" Jenny dropped her hand from her mouth and smiled up at Dickie. "We'll drive 'em crazy with need!"

"And how are we going to do that? There isn't enough bootleg in Nevada that can convince him to drop his pants on his own!"

"It isn't called bootleg anymore—it's legal now, remember?" She gave him a look. "No! Not bootleg! Noise! Love—noise! They'll hear us and it'll make them. . .ya know. . .want to do it too!"

Dickie raised a brow as he looked at her. "I don't know, baby doll! I'm not really into making love to someone in front of anyone else. I mean—I like to consider myself adventurous—but I do have a limit."

"No, you idiot! We won't "really" be doing it. We'll just make it "sound" as if we're doing it. Anyway—the most adventurous you ever managed was making love to me in the rumble seat of your Picadilly!"

"I didn't hear you complaining as you were calling out my name, Miss Jeanette Spencer! What was it you were calling me? Your Rudolph Valentino? And, my dear, that was a top of the line Rolls Sportster!" He shook his head in quiet despair. "Boy, I bet that would go for a pretty penny these days. I wonder whatever happened to that thing. It was a work of art—pure art."

"Who knows. Go look under the cottage next door—maybe they buried that under there too."

"That's a horrible thing to say!" He looked at her through wide eyes. "I loved that car dearly!"

"Oh—but it's alright that they buried "me" under there, huh?" She raised a brow at him then moved back toward the sofa.

"That's different and you know it."

"Oh shut up and get over here or I'll make you wait another eighty-five years!" She plopped down onto the edge of the mattress making the metal railing underneath bounce off the floor. She smiled with satisfaction as she looked up at him. "Come on! Make it sound like you're my Valentino now, big guy!"

"I'm not in the mood now," he said sullenly as he moved to sit next to her and she slapped his arm.

"Dickie!"

"Alright! Fine!" He turned and grabbed her by the arms and pushed her back onto the mattress then rolled over top of her.

She reacted quickly as she brought her knee up between his legs. "Get offa me!"

His grunt echoed throughout the room as he turned onto his back and held onto himself. "Oh, God! I forgot what that felt like!"

She started bouncing on the bed next to him. "Oh, Dickie, you. . . you. . .man, you!"

He gave her an irritated look but slowly got up and onto his knees next to her as he started wobbling the couch back and forth. "Oh, my little sugar plum! You make me. . .so. . ." he looked at Jenny in desperation. ". . .what should I say you make me feel?"

She stopped bouncing as she looked back at him. "I. . .don't know. Do you remember what it felt like?"

"Hmph, you just knocked any memories of "those" kinds of feelings out of me a minute ago. I'm afraid my sensory device is out of commission right now."

"Okay! Okay!" She moved over to him and leaned against him. "Here!"

She pressed her lips to his and they both closed their eyes and reached for one another, then opened their eyes simultaneously and Jenny started giggling. He moaned loudly and dropped onto his back.

"Oh! Jenny! You make it very hard, ya know!"

Meanwhile, Sara sat on the edge of the bed as she looked over to where Grissom was standing and leaning against the bureau. She whispered to him, "Did he just say she was making him very hard?"

Jenny glanced at him. "Hard? Hard? You're too much! Listen, bud, you're getting too big for your britches!"

Grissom looked back at Sara with knit brows. "I think she's telling him he's got too much for his pants."

"Really?" Sara asked, seemingly impressed. "Who wouldda thought?"

Dickie looked over at Jenny then back to the glass of water that was still sitting on the stand.

"Too big for my britches?" he asked quietly then picked up the water and started toward her. She got to her feet and started backing away.

"No, Dickie—now wait—not so fast! Ohhhh, Dickie!" she exclaimed as he tossed the water onto her. She stood there dripping and said very slowly as she watched him smiling at her. "Now, I'm all wet."

"Just as I intended, baby."

She growled as she ran into him and knocked him back onto the sofa again and he shrieked as he landed and bounced onto the floor. "Ow! You're too rough!"

"I'll show ya rough, ya big galoot! You like to start things! Well, let's go big guy, and I'll finish it for ya!"

Grissom looked over at Sara and smiled sheepishly. "Um—I think she recuperated rather quickly. Energetic little thing, isn't she?"

Jenny jumped off the sofa and landed on top of Dickie but as she came down on top of him he guarded himself with his arm as it came into an abrupt contact with her cheek.

"Ow! That hurt!" She sat up on the floor and rubbed her cheek and Dickie sat up beneath her.

"What?" He asked, full of concern.

"That big bone of yours! It hit me in the face!"

Sara's eyes widened as she looked up at Grissom.

"Oh, baby," Dickie said gently as he pulled her closer to him and stroked her back. "I'm sorry. You just came down on me so fast, I wasn't expecting it. Are you alright?"

"No," she moped as she lay her head on his shoulder and moved until she sat on his lap. "You're just so big, Dickie."

"Oh," he crooned to her. "I'm not too big for you sweetheart. I'm just the right size. Look. We fit together perfectly, don't we?"

"Mmm-hmm," she said softly as she enjoyed the back rub she was receiving. "Don't stop, that feels good."

"I can always make you feel better, can't I, my little baby bear. Tell me. Tell me I can always make you feel better."

"No one can make me feel as good as you, my love," she yawned as she rested her head against his shoulder. "I think you wore me out."

"It's no wonder," he soothed her. "When you climbed on top, you knocked the breath right out of me. But I guess I can handle a little rough loving once in a while."

"Dickie?"

"Hmm?"

"We're supposed to be. . .you know." She climbed back up onto the sofa and waited until he joined her, then lay on her back next to him.

"Now what?" He asked as they both looked up at the ceiling.

"Bounce," she whispered and together they started lifting their butts up and dropping them onto the mattress. "Harder! Harder! Okay—faster! Faster!"

The sudden eruption of music coming from inside the bedroom stopped Dickie and Jenny's movements and they looked at one another. Finally Dickie sighed and sat up again.

"I don't think it worked."

Grissom stepped away from the radio and picked up a journal he had lying next to it. When he looked at Sara he saw that she was watching him in return.

"I don't think we needed to hear any more of that," he he moved toward the chair in the corner. "Get some sleep, Sara. You've been awake all night."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Sara spent the morning in a restless slumber, then gave up the attempt around one o'clock. She hesitantly looked from the bed and saw Grissom standing at the window and looking outside. When she got up and joined him she saw that he was watching Dickie and Jenny trying to play volleyball even though there was no net and the ball they were using was a child's play ball they must have found lying around from a previous occupant. Sara looked at his face as he watched the couple then looked back in time to see Jenny's perfect blonde hair floating around her perfect face. When she noticed how her breasts were bouncing each time she'd jump and try to hit the ball back to Dickie, she realized Grissom wasn't simply watching a game between two people and suddenly she wasn't quite as fond of the girl as she had been the previous night. She turned and walked out of the bedroom.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"But "why" do you do this?" Jenny panted as she tried to keep up with a very focused Sara who was now jogging halfway back up the beach.

"What do you mean, "why" do I do it? Why does anyone do it? To stay healthy for one." Sara continued running.

"Well," Jenny said through deep breaths. "Can't you just eat less or something?"

Sara stopped suddenly and looked at her, bringing the girl to an abrupt stop as she tried to smile up at her. "Look! If you don't want to run—don't run! Simple as that! I mean, it isn't as if I "asked" you to come along."

"Oh," Jenny's smile faded. "You're angry at me. Why are you angry at me?"

Sara looked at her and felt a burst of guilt flow through her. It wasn't the girl's fault that Grissom preferred a much more feminine type of woman. The girl was clearly nuts over her boyfriend.

"I'm not—angry at you. Maybe a little irritated. Maybe." Sara wiped the sweat from her brow and started walking back toward the cottages, much to Jenny's relief then she added under her breath. "It isn't your fault."

"What isn't my fault? Sara? What's wrong?" Jenny kept in pace with Sara then realization hit her like a ton of bricks. "It's Dr. Grissom—isn't it? He's done something—or should I say, he "hasn't" done something?"

Sara looked at her quickly then looked back at the sand and continued walking. "It's nothing new."

"No," Jenny agreed sadly. "It's as old as the hills. Believe me—I know. Do you know how long I had to wait for Dickie? I went to work for his father's furniture business just so he'd notice me. . ."

"And it took three months before he asked you out?" Sara asked slowly, not knowing how she knew this, but knowing it all the same.

"Yes, well, that's neither here nor there," Jenny said, knowing some of what she had said to her the day before must have stayed hidden in her brain. "But that was "after" I went to work for him. Before that, we lived next door to each other and I think I fell in love with that big jerk when I was all of eleven years old and he came home from school when he was seventeen. Oh, he looked so dapper in his varsity sweater and white trousers."

"Varsity sweater?" Sara asked. "White trousers?"

"Oh, yes. Dickie was on the varsity team. He played basketball and was rather good at it. He even tried to teach me how to throw the ball that year. I guess he thought I was a cute kid and I helped pass a boring summer before he went off to Harvard. By the next year, I changed from being a cute little kid to an awkward pre-teen with long legs and no boobs. I think that was the year my face started to break out, too. He didn't notice me again after that. I'd watch and wait for him to come home each school break over the next four years and thought surely he'd notice me when I was sixteen and he graduated. But he didn't. He broke my heart without even trying. But then, I learned his weaknesses and I fixed him! I made him fall in love with me, and he's been there ever since."

"And how long's that been?"

"Going on eighty. . .I mean, eighteen, yeah, eighteen. . .eighteen months. It was after I came back from school. We were going to get married, ya know. But we got tired on the way to Vegas and stopped off to get some rest. We should've never stopped. We should've gone straight on through."

"Why? What happened?"

"I don't know. We just sort of never made it there. But we will, someday." She smiled at Sara. "So, ya see, I know what it's like to be in love with someone and have them treat you like you're invisible or a kid sister. But, we can fix that, honey."

"I don't think so. He might treat me like a kid sister, but he seems to be watching you closely enough. Clearly, your "boobs" grew in. Don't take offense, but evidently you're more his type of woman than I am."

"No," Jenny said slowly as she watched Sara closely. "I don't think so. I think he's just hiding. But, if you think he's looking a little too much at me—then we'll have to divert his attention to Dickie and see how he likes it."

"What are you talking about?" Sara asked. "Why would Grissom watch Dickie?"

"You'll see, sweetie," Jenny laughed. "We're going to have a nice double-date tonight for dinner. Then you'll see."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Dickie sat so stiffly at the table just behind Grissom's cottage that when Jenny placed her hand on his thigh, he "eeked" and jumped, nearly toppling over the bench.

"Dickie! What is the matter with you!" Jenny asked as she looked up at him.

"Look, Jenny—I don't like the idea of this—this—caveman-type scenario you're cooking up! What if he doesn't take too kindly to me making love to his heartthrob? I may be a little taller than he is—but he's got more "oomph" behind him!" He looked at Jenny through worried eyes. "You know, sunshine, that I'm not a fighter—I'm a lover. . ."

"And a basketball player," Jenny provided her support.

"And a. . .what the hell's "that" got to do with anything? I can't exactly pick him up and shoot him through a hoop!"

"Oh, come on, Dickie," she giggled as she leaned in to him. "Look at him! He isn't a fighter either! He'd much rather be out finding butterflies than finding reasons to bop you in the nose. Anyway, if he does, I'll be here to make it all better."

"You will?" He asked as he leaned toward her and nearly touched his lips to hers. "You'll make me feel better?"

"Of course," she said then saw Sara and Grissom coming out of the building toward them with a tray with four glasses and a pitcher of some kind of alcoholic concoction. She shoved him away from her. "Now, get busy acting like you're completely infatuated with Sara."

"And she knows all about this—right?" He asked through clenched teeth as he smiled up at the approaching couple.

"Yes!" Jenny hissed. "Now go make him jealous!"

"Can't we just make him drunk again?" He asked in a sick tone.

"Dickie!" She growled.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOOOoOo

Grissom sat on the bottom step to his back porch as he swirled his fourth drink in his hand. He looked over to where Jenny was sitting with her back to the table as she watched her boyfriend dancing a slow dance with Sara. What was wrong with that girl? Sitting there and letting her beau slide his hands all over Sara like that? Didn't she have any sense of territorialism? He watched her with him earlier that day when they were playing with a ball and thought surely if anyone would ever even look at "Dickie" that she'd rip their heads off and shove it up their . . . well, she looked like she wouldn't stand for such a thing. He couldn't help watching them early that afternoon. He had no choice. Hell, he had just spent over four hours trying not to stare at the goddess lying on his bed. He flipped through at least ten journals in an attempt to get his hardening penis to go down as he would watch Sara's breasts rise and fall with her even breathing. Damned penis! Why'd it have to betray him so? So, what alternative did he have but to get up and go look out the window. And out there was a beautiful girl and her (kinda weird, in Grissom's estimation) boyfriend, showing an affection toward one another the likes he had rarely seen. And he was captivated by it, wondering why he wouldn't allow himself such a treasure. Why couldn't he have a relationship like that? Dammit!

"You dance divinely, Sara, my dear," Dickie crooned to his dance partner as he pulled her a bit closer and wrapped his arms around her, then dipped his head toward hers. "Your hair is so soft and smells like. . .heaven."

"You dance divinely. , ." Grissom mimicked to himself in an imitation of Dickie's voice then he tipped his glass and downed its contents. "Your hair smells like heaven. Fuck it!"

He got to his feet, took two unsteady steps toward the table, paused and looked at the glass he still held in his hand, sat it on the tabletop then started back toward the porch with every intention of going inside and closing himself in a dark bedroom. At that moment he saw Jenny jump up from the bench and rush toward the dancing couple.

"You beast! You vile. . .vile. . .um. . .swine. . .um. . .brute! You. . .dirty, rotten. . .pig!" Spilled from Jenny's mouth as she stood before the couple with her hands on her hips.

"Go away," Dickie said and turned away from her. "I'm having a good time, here."

Jenny turned and looked at Grissom then turned immediately back to Sara and Dickie. "How dare you! Uh. . .and you. . .you floozy! You get your hands off of my Dickie!"

"What did you say?" Sara snorted in a chuckle. "Get my hands off your dickie?"

"Dickie!" Jenny looked at the man with what Grissom could only translate as desperation. "Stop touching her derriere. It's too little—anyway!"

Sara stopped dancing and looked at Jenny through knit brows. "Now wait a minute, we never said anything about being insulting!"

Dickie stood there looking at the two women who were now both standing with their hands on their hips. "Oh? It's alright if she calls me a pig and swine—you don't find that insulting—but say something about a woman's ass and look out!"

"Oh, shut up!" Both Sara and Jenny said as they turned to look at Dickie.

"You can . . . um. . .just go find your own man! Yeah! That's what you need to do! Go find an available man and rub your hands all over him like you were doing with my Dickie!"

Sara stared blankly at Jenny for a moment then Jenny nodded toward the back porch, bringing a look of understanding to Sara.

"Oh!" Sara said quickly then changed her demeanor again as she looked back at Jenny. "I can run my hands over anyone I want to! You're not my boss!"

"No," Grissom said as he took two steps toward the small crowd and grabbed onto Sara's hand. "But I am! We're going inside!"

Grissom started going up the stairs at a steady rate as he pulled Sara behind him, not seeing how Dickie and Jenny put their arms around each other's wastes and watched them, and Sara turned and gave them an impish smile before turning back to see just where her "boss" was taking her.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Jenny looked up at Dickie and he back at her, then to the door that slammed closed at the top of the porch steps. They spurted toward the wooden structure and tried to run of the steps but tripped over one another.

"Where are they going?" Jenny hush-yelled.

"The hell with that! "What" are they going to do when they get there?"

"Oh, Dickie! This is it! I can feel it! I know it!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Sara didn't have time to think as she was pulled into the bedroom and spun around until she was inside Grissom's gloriously muscled arms. She barely had the chance to look at him as his face came close and his lips covered hers in a kiss that made her knees go weak. Vaguely, she heard the door close then felt herself being backed up until she was pressed against it.

"Sara," he breathed against her between intoxicating kisses that tugged at her lips and separated them as his tongue would dart inside, each thrust sending a jolt of electrical shock straight to her groin. "Sara?"

"Hmmm?" She asked as she put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself but when she felt his hand slide up beneath her shirt and land on her lace-covered breast, she whimpered and lifted her leg as she tried to wrap it around his hip.

"Sara, I know what to do about this now," he growled as he reached down and lifted the leg that was repeatedly sliding along his outer thigh.

"Oh, thank God!" she breathed against his mouth as she continued to subconsciously try to climb up his body. "If you don't do something right this minute, I think I'm going to explode into a million pieces and die!"

"No," he smirked as he pressed her back against the door again, this time grabbing both legs and wrapping them around his waist. "I won't let you die."

He pressed himself against her and she felt herself on the brink of a climax already. Jesus! If this is what he can do just within the first minute—she didn't know if she could survive the actual act, itself. She groaned and clutched to him, starting to shake with the waves of electricity that was shooting through her. She felt his arms begin to tremble and realized he was feeling much the same then watched as he pressed her against the door again before separating far enough to allow his gaze to travel down her body to where it was pressed so intimately against his. She felt his growl rumble through his big body more than she actually heard it then almost grunted when he moved one hand down to the front of her, pressing against her throbbing nub through the cloth of her shorts before he tired of it and slipped his fingers beneath the leg opening. Her head actually thumped back against the door as she arched and started to buck against him. She couldn't stop herself. She wanted to, but couldn't as she grabbed onto the thick muscle of his forearm and tried to pull him away. But his insistence won out and he continued to stroke her as he leaned in against her again and pressed his lips to her ear.

"You are sublime," he whispered then flicked his tongue into the shell he found there.

She grabbed his face with both hands and turned him to meet her kiss. It was everything she had ever imagined it would be. His lips, so soft and yet demanding; his teeth, slightly crooked in a way that sent her senses reeling; and his tongue; oh, his tongue. She was being moved but all she could concentrate on was the man she was pouring all her love into. She couldn't stop kissing him, she was consumed with it. She was starving for the taste and texture of him and each time she heard his little groan, sigh or growl, she thought she surely had died and gone to heaven. He pulled his mouth back from hers and she groaned her disappointment but then felt herself falling and realized they were dropping onto the bed. They bounced twice and he no sooner settled between her thighs than he was ravaging her mouth with his again. But as his lips nipped and sucked at her, he lifted himself onto his knees and started stripping the shirt from his body and tossed it onto the edge of the bed. Next came her blouse and he raised himself enough to look down at the treasure he had found there, then swiftly went about unbuttoning her shorts before yanking them off her long limbs. She lay on the bed in her bra and panties, looking up at him as he remained between her legs but on his haunches as he still wore his jeans. Never had she seen a sight as erotic as this man with his hands sliding up and down her thighs before traveling to her stomach where his fingertips lightly traced over the sensitive skin just enough to make her abdomen convulse in reaction. He let a smile touch his eyes as he repeated the procedure and watched as she reacted the same way with her breath catching in her throat with each stroke. His eyes slowly moved up over her body, stopping as he looked at the black and mauve lace that covered her breasts. He quickly glanced up at her then back again and trailed his fingers up her sides and on to the thin straps to her bra. She shrugged out of the contraption with his help, then watched as he tugged it lower, exposing her already hardened nipples. Another quick glance at her face and he lowered himself down upon her, bringing a moan from the depths of her soul as she felt the immense hardness of him pressed so intimately to her core. He kissed her and swallowed her response as he played with the curls surrounding her face and let the sensation of his chest muscles pressed against her breasts excite them both. The descent of his lips to her jaw and on to her neck had her arching against him and he didn't deny them the glorious sensations they were creating as she wrapped her legs around his and pulled him against her tightly. He responded with steady gyrations and when it wasn't providing him with enough pressure, he reached down and lifted her bottom until it aligned them perfectly. Through panties and denim, their desire screamed throughout their bodies and she clutched to his shoulders. When his tongue slid across her throat, she tilted her head back to give him greater access and when he went lower and nibbled on her shoulder, her fingers found his curls and guided him even lower. He latched onto her breast almost as if he were afraid of doing so and when he suckled for a few moments then stopped all movement, she understood why. He was being consumed with sensations and the events unfolding around them. She looked at his face that was tight with desire and couldn't wait any longer so she reached down his sides and slid her fingers between them. He allowed her the access she was seeking as her hand slid over the bulge in his jeans and she rubbed him rhythmically.

"Oh, Grissom, I can't wait any longer," she breathed against his throat and he grabbed onto the back of her neck and held her as his mouth found hers in a starving kiss.

She reached for his button and opened his pants, then reached as far as she could as she pushed them down over his hips before grasping hold of him and feeling a heat that burned her. He groaned so deeply she wasn't quite sure if she had hurt him or not, until he stopped his kiss to growl.

"I need to be in you, Sara—now."

She looked up into the bluest eyes she had ever seen and quickly nodded her head but when he reached down to push at her panties, she simply brushed his hands away and pulled her leg opening to the side. He got a knowing smile in his eyes and positioned himself , then with great effort, slowly pushed himself against her.

Her throat constricted at the initial pain of it. She always thought it would be glorious, but nothing prepared her for this. He was much larger than she had anticipated and her body needed to adjust to his. He picked up on this as he clamped his eyes closed and retreated, then pressed back inside again, going a little farther this time. He repeated this procedure several more times until finally he was sheathed completely within her and wedged between her thighs. He moved his arms back up until he was resting on his elbows with a forearm on each side of her.

"I can't believe this," she whispered as she looked up at him and his lips tilted up the slightest to reveal that he, too, was having trouble grasping their situation. "We're really doing this."

"It feels real to me," he whispered back. "Or maybe it feels more like a bit of heaven. What do you think, Sara? Are you my angel?"

"I'll be whatever you want me to be, just so I know you're here with me."

"I only want you to be—you."

He lowered his head again and touched his lips to hers then pulled his hips back and thrust forward, bringing a gasp from her. He looked at her for confirmation that she was alright and upon a quick nod of her head, he repeated the procedure. Their rhythm remained slow but gained power with each thrust until she was feeling as if she were going to burst with each stroke his immenseness provided against the sensitive area inside of her.

"Faster. . .faster."

He didn't refuse and soon the bed was bouncing in a rhythm that had the headboard nearly beating a tune against the wall.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Jenny and Dickie made it back the hallway just in time for the bedroom door to slam closed in front of them. Jenny had gotten a glimpse of the look in Grissom's eyes as he nearly pounced on Sara and the blonde woman kicked her leg so high with excitement that she could have put any Rockette to shame. She clapped her hands then turned to where Dickie was just stumbling into place next to her.

"This is it!" She jumped into an unsuspecting Dickie's arms and forced him back against the wall. "We'll be on our way any moment now!"

They both turned and widened their eyes at the sounds coming through the door, the bangs, the moans and groans. They looked at one another with anticipation when the sounds of clearly audible excited whispers escaped to them. They waited in great anticipation as they listened to various sounds that informed them they were on the fast road to eternal heaven. Then they exchanged glances as the noises became more and more demanding and indicated that this was not going to be a quickie. Finally, they pulled a chair and hassock to the doorway of the living room and sat down as they watched the closed door across the hall.

"Faster. . .faster," came from the other room and raised Jenny's brow, then the sound of the bed bouncing off the wall turned both their eyes onto one another again.

They listened to mounting sounds of the impending explosion that was bound to take place and heard Sara's repeated acclamations of the godlike creature she was in bed with, but soon heard the sounds of the mattress creaking again.

"It's okay, snookums," Dickie tried to convince her. "Maybe we just need to wait until they're finished with this first "interlude." You know the others never went at it more than once on their first times together. They can't last much longer and we'll be on our way."

She nodded her head in agreement and leaned back against the wall. They listened to the sounds of enamored voices that encouraged one another; they listened to the sounds of a bed being bounced against the floor and wall; they listened to groans and moans of contentment and what could clearly be defined as growls and mewlings.

"He's making her purr!" Jenny said as she looked over at Dickie. "Why didn't you ever make "me" purr?"

He shrugged his shoulders and went back to listening for the sign that they were finally going to be transferred to another realm.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Sara was bare now as she lay on the bed. She felt a coolness against her body as the air touched the sheen of sweat that she had worked up. She took extreme pleasure in touching the gray and brown curls that rested against her upper abdomen as he recovered from the second explosive climax they had reached. Frankly she was a bit surprised when he took her over the edge the first time, only to slow down long enough for her to catch up with him again and eventually join him in another earth-shattering explosion. She took in a heavy breath of satisfaction but stopped midway through the exhalation of said breath as he kissed her tummy then moved until he was at her side and was turning her onto her stomach. Her curiosity was peeked as she waited until she could feel his breath on the small of her back. His fingers slid up her thighs as his lips and tongue worked up her spine until he was at the back of her neck and she could feel his hardened erection pressing against her. She turned her head to look at him and gave him a knowing smile but as he leaned in toward her again, she turned to face him and pressed him onto his back.

"Not without you, my love," he murmured as he pulled her with him then reached down and spread her legs around him. "Lift up."

She tilted her abdomen as he suggested and he positioned himself, sliding inside her and providing them with another set of sensations as they moved against one another at this new angle. It started slowly as they gently kissed and caressed one another's faces, but soon it turned into a fire that needed to be fed. She raised herself up until she was seated on him, impaled by him completely, then she took over as she rode him and went over the brink into the abyss that they sought.

She collapsed on top of him, but he didn't waste time as he moved with them until they were off the bed. She looked at him in surprise as he positioned her on the dresser and he moved to stand between her legs.

"Griss?"

"I've waited a long time, you've only wet my appetite."

He was driven by the needs he had kept leashed for far too long and he entered her with an abruptness that made her grip onto his shoulders so she wouldn't get tipped over the other side of the dresser. She soon didn't care where she landed as he moved within her. She could hear things falling but paid no mind to it. All she was able to grasp was the pure bliss that she was swimming through at the moment.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

"What in the world?" Jenny asked as she listened to the crash from inside.

"I think they knocked the lamp off the dresser. I liked that lamp, too. I remember when they put it in there—what was it? About 1980? I thought it was very tasteful." He looked over at Jenny with a cocked brow as the repeated poundings followed. "Good Lord! He better be prepared to replace that drywall if he breaks it! You can't go beating furniture against the wall like that and not expect it to create some damage!"

"Oh, Dickie!" Jenny scolded. "Forget about the damned wall. They're still not done. How long can this go on?"

"I don't know. Another fifteen minutes. . .half an hour?"

"That's what you said last time."

"Well, how was I supposed to know he would recuperate so quickly? I wish I had had the stamina he has when we were alive!"

Jenny looked at her beau and felt a stab of pity for him. She reached over and stroked his cheek. "You were just fine, sweetie."

"No, I wasn't," he moped.

"Yes, you were. You were magnificent."

"Well, not magnificent, surely."

"You were a raging bull, Dickie. You were incomparable."

"Jenny, you were a virgin when we got together. You had nothing to compare me to."

"Oh, honey, what does that matter? You're the best as far as I'm concerned. You're the bees knees! You are my stag—my ultimate."

"Really?"

"Of course. Now be quiet and listen—they've got be finished soon—right?"

Another crash from inside turned Dickie's expression dim. "There went the radio."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Grissom was feasting on the goddess that was on his dresser, leaning back as she held herself up with her hands and he drilled inside of her. Her breasts were magnificent; everything he had ever imagined, and he wasn't about to let them alone. Hell, he wasn't prepared to let any part of her body alone now that he had breached the line.

Sara was in delicious ecstasy as she was being attacked from two ends at the same time as his powerful strokes was making her climb the peaks of another orgasm while at the same time the expertise of his lips, tongue and teeth were intensifying the experience at her breasts. She was getting closer and closer and couldn't stop the sounds erupting from her throat as she grasped onto him and held him against her. She was barely aware of herself being moved again until she felt herself dropping onto the mattress with him still inside of her. He pounded into her and she could feel him spilling his seed just as she heard the first crack of the wooden bed frame. The mattress landed haphazardly on the floor but they were both too worn to care as they held onto one another.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The crash of the bed landing on the floor reached Jenny's and Dickie's ears but they both simply went about counting the tiles on the ceiling and inspecting their nails respectively.

"I don't think it's going to stop until the cottage falls down," Jenny said in a bored tone.

Dickie got to his feet and went back to the kitchen. "Would you like something to drink?"

"No," she said with boredom as she followed him to the well lit room. "Here. There's a deck of cards. We might as well play until they're finished."

"Excuse me," came a voice from the back door. "Is Grissom or Sara around?"

Dickie looked up to see the young man he had possessed a few days before when he picked Sara's name out of the hat. "They're—um—busy right now. I don't think they can be interrupted."

"What do you mean?" Greg stepped inside and looked at the card game that was beginning. "They wanted to be filled in on what we found back at the lab."

"Well, they've got more important things on their minds right now, honey," Jenny told him. "Here, sweetie, sit down and play rummy with us until they're through."

"Until they're through?" Greg asked as he looked at the seat at the kitchen tab le. "What are they doing?"

"Could be about anything by this time," Dickie said under his breath.

"They're communicating, honey. Don't worry. Their conversation can't last that much longer. Come on—sit down. You know how to play rummy, don't you?"

"Well," Greg said doubtfully, then gave in and sat at the table. "If they're busy right now, I guess I can wait."

"That's right," Jenny agreed. "Like I said, they can't talk that much longer."

"Yeah, I know," Greg said as he watched Dickie deal out the cards and he picked up his hand. "They don't have a very good relationship. They can't seem to stay in the same room anymore without some kind of explosion taking place."

"Oh, I don't doubt that," Dickie told him.

"Oh, would you like some coffee? Dr. Grissom made a pot before dinner." Jenny got to her feet in an attempt to turn the conversation away from the couple still making love in the room behind them.

"Yeah. Sure," Greg said as he rearranged his cards. "Say, did you two find your car? I know they said you were lost or something last night."

"Our car's unavailable right now," Dickie said. "What brought you back to the lake?"

"Some of the evidence we took back with us. I wanted to fill them in on it."

"Really?" Jenny said as she put the cup down in front of Greg. "What kind of evidence?"

Greg looked at her then shrugged his shoulders. "I guess it doesn't matter so much. I mean, it isn't as if the case was something that could be leaked back to the suspects. The gun we took back to the lab. It turned out to be a collector's edition. It belonged to some publishing magnate back in the twenties."

"Publishing?" Jenny asked as she looked at him apprehensively.

"Yeah. Guy by the name of Farnsworth Spencer. He had the gun registered for insurance purposes—made quite a bundle when it went missing. He claims it was stolen."

"Um, Dickie, could you come into the room with me? I seem to have lost my. . .glasses."

"You don't wear. . ." Dickie started but flinched when Jenny gave him a look and jerked her head toward the front of the building. "Oh—"those" glasses."

He got up and followed her into the darkened living room where she turned to him immediately and started a very hushed and alarmed whisper.

"That was Pappa's prize procession!"

"I know—he threatened to use it on me if I didn't leave you alone."

"Oh, Pappa would never have used it on you. He just liked frightening you," she dismissed. "But I wonder who in the world could've stolen it! No one knew the combination of his safe except him."

"Probably that insane brother of yours!" Dickie told her. "He said he was going to do more than merely shoot me—and it doesn't warrant repeating. I found it vile when I first heard it and it still makes me cringe to think about what he wanted to do with my body parts."

"Only because he was in love with Pricilla Bentley and she wouldn't give him the time of day." She looked at him with narrowed eyes.

"Is it my fault she couldn't take no for an answer? I told her I wasn't going to see her anymore—she could have gone out with your brother. She had enough opportunity."

"If you wouldn't have led her on, Dickie! You just couldn't tell her to buzz off—could you! We were practically in the car on our way to get married and she still was hounding you to take her back."

"I couldn't help it! How was I supposed to know she'd be so adamant? We only went out for a few months before I started seeing you."

"You "saw" me for years, you oaf! You just couldn't see what was in front of your eyes! Pricilla evidently had bigger boobs sooner than I did!"

"Jenny, darling, please lets not get into that again. You were a child—what did you want me to do?"

"Uh—wait for me!"

"Really, Jeanette. Sometimes you have no understanding of the mechanics of men at all!"

"Oh, I understand all right!" She put her hands on her hips. "If you're not still little boys inside a man's body like the dope in the kitchen who, by the way, is now looking at your cards as well as mine—then you're a man stuck in a body with no idea of what to do about it until you're forced into it—like our loud Romeo in the bedroom."

"Well, at least he figured it out," Dickie said as they heard Grissom growling something that sounded a lot like "Oh, God, Saraaaa!"

Jenny looked up at the young man who was now slowly and apprehensively walking down the hall toward them. He looked at the bedroom door in confusion.

"What's going on in there?" Greg asked. "He sounds as if he's in pain."

"Oh, he is, old chap," Dickie said as he put his arm around Greg's shoulders and escorted him back to the kitchen with Jenny. "Bad back, don't you know? Sara's in there trying to help him but they'll be through soon."

At that point they heard another loud bang from the bedroom and they all looked in the direction of the sound, followed by a very clear exclamation from Sara.

"Yes—yes! You're perfect! Oh, Gris! Yesssss!"

Greg looked at the other two in the kitchen and his wide eyes. "Doesn't sound like a bad back to me."

"No—really. . ." Dickie began.

"Yeah—whatever," Greg said as he waved them off and turned and started out the back door. "This is like listening to your parents go at it. I'll be out back. Let me know when they're ready to talk—about something other than their mutual admiration for one another."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"We broke the bed," Grissom breathed as he lay with his head on the pillow and held Sara in his arms.

She rested her cheek against his chest and looked up at him. His sheepish smile charmed her beyond reason and she lifted herself until they were lying face-to-face. She was at a loss for words. He was extraordinary. He was magnificent. He was glorious. And he was hers. She dropped her eyes from the brilliance of his blue orbs, suddenly feeling very shy, even if she has just been touched on almost every part of her body by him.

"You" broke the bed," she murmured and he chuckled. "You were insatiable all night long."

"Me? You were helping to bounce the frame off the walls. You can't blame this entirely on me."

"Alright."

"Alright?" He raised a brow as he looked at her. "That's all you've got to say? Can it be that Sara Sidle is at a loss for words?"

"What else can I say?"

He turned onto his side and gently kissed her lips then looked at her again. The backs of his fingers skimmed over her cheek and he touched his forehead to hers. "You could say something along the lines of . . . I'm so happy this happened. . . I feel completely secure in my decision to be here with you. . .you fill my heart completely. . .there is no one who ever touched me the way you have touched me. . .your spirit has filled my very soul. . .and. . . I'm going to make love to you at least four times a day for the remainder of the time here at Pale Moon Cottages—starting today."

His first comments nearly brought tears to her eyes then she gave him a bright smile and a nudge upon his last suggestion, bringing a responding smile to his lips. He leaned in to her and let his lips linger on hers for another moment before they heard her stomach grumble. He pulled back and looked at her with a raised brow.

"I'm hungry," she said simply.

"So I understand." He got up from the bed and pulled on his shorts then grabbed a shirt that he pulled over his shoulders. When he turned back toward Sara she was already dressed again and starting toward the door. He caught her mid-stride and pulled her back into his arms. "Hey. Where are you going?"

"I thought you wanted me to leave," she answered.

"I do—but I planned on going with you. I'm hungry too."

He took her hand and opened the door then walked down the hall toward the kitchen. They barely took their eyes off one another as they entered the dimly lit room and barely noticed Jenny and Dickie as they looked up from their game of cards.

"You're done—finally!" Dickie managed to get out and received a swift kick under the table to which he looked at his fiancé very sternly. "Well, come on now, you have to admit they've been in there so long I was ready to send in their little friend over there just to make sure they were still alive!"

"I think if "anyone" would know if they were dead or not—it would be us!" Jenny whispered to him.

"You two don't mind getting yourselves some breakfast do you?" Grissom asked as he kept his eyes on Sara and they both moseyed to the refrigerator where they pulled out some strawberries and grapes then started to head back toward the hallway.

"You mean lunch, don't you?" Dickie said coolly.

"Whatever."

"Helll-oooo!" Greg said irritably as he entered the kitchen, clearly having spent the night on the sofa and just woken up.

"Oh! Greg!" Sara stopped suddenly and looked at him. "I didn't see you there."

"Yeah. I know." He watched them.

Grissom turned and took a moment to focus on him. "Greg? What are you doing here?"

"The case? Remember?"

"Of course I remember," Grissom said a bit dryly. "What have you found?"

"That gun—it was a collectable and was insured by a Farnsworth Spencer back in the nineteen-twenties. So, those bodies must've been under there for about eighty years."

"They were in pretty good shape for being down there that long," Grissom told him.

"Thank you," Jenny gushed and patted her hair then caught herself and coughed to cover her response before looking at Dickie. "I was talking to Dickie."

Grissom looked back to Greg. "Is there anything else you wanted?"

"Uh—no. Not really." He looked closely at Grissom. "So? You mind telling me what your intentions are?"

"My intentions?"

"With Sara. You two were in there all night—and from the sounds I heard coming from behind that door, you weren't sleeping."

"You listened to us!" Sara said.

"No—not really. I shoved a pillow over my ears to try to block it out."

A knock on the front door turned their attention through the hallway just as the manager of Pale Moon entered the cottage, gripping his hat in his hand.

"I saw you all from outside, so I didn't think you'd mind if I came in."

"Was there something I could do for you?"

"Well, we got some visitors this morning and I thought you might be able to answer any questions they might have." He gestured toward the three people standing several yards from the front porch as they faced Sara's cottage. "They seem to have an interest in what we found."

Jenny and Dickie looked at one another and tried to get out of their chairs as inconspicuously as possible but in his haste, Dickie knocked over his chair, earning him a "look" from his companion. Grissom and Sara glanced at them but started walking toward the people waiting in the lawn. When all six came down the porch steps, the three strangers turned to acknowledge them.

"Daddy?" Jenny breathed as she looked at a balding man in his mid-fifties.

"Holy Jesus!" Dickie muttered as he tried to hide behind Jenny and as he stood nearly a head taller, peered over her shoulder at the man.

Greg watched the couple with knit brows but the others seemed to be unaware of their reactions. Jenny looked at the man who was wearing a pair of grey slacks, a light blue shirt and matching gray tie. He glanced at her but looked back to Grissom as he reached for his hand in a polite handshake.

"Hello," he remarked as he looked at Grissom. "My name's Bradley Spencer. This is my son, Zach and my daughter, Emily. We were contacted last night about a gun that had belonged to my great-grandfather—Farnsworth Spencer."

"Great-grandfather?" Jenny whispered as she turned and looked at Dickie. "That means—he's got to be Reggie's grandson!"

"Who would have ever procreated with Reggie?" Dickie sneered.

"Shh." She turned back to where Grissom and Bradley were walking toward the cottage, and they hurried behind them, not noticing how Greg was slowly following as they took in the appearances of the two younger members of the Spencer clan. Zach wore a replica of his father's clothing but in different colors but Emily seemed to be walking straight out of the 60s with her long hair, tie-dyed tee-shirt and torn jeans.

"They say you found two bodies with the gun." Brad knelt as he looked beneath the cottage where the digging had taken place. "I might have an idea who they could be. Legend has it that back in the twenties my great-aunt went missing with her fiancé. Is there any way to determine if this is the couple? It certainly would answer a lot of questions that have been rolling around in my family for the past eighty years."

"I'm certain we can find some connection between the DNA in the female body and yours—if you're related as you say. If not, it's going to take a long time to figure out who they might be."

"They say the couple ran off to elope and my great-grandfather was never the same after that. He only lived out the year and most say he simply gave up. His daughter was everything to him."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Sara said as she listened to the man.

"That's not the worst of it," Emily spoke up. "They say that my great-great-grandmother finally talked him into allowing Aunt Jeanette to marry the guy. If they would've only stuck around until the next day, he would've given her his permission."

"Oh, my God!" Jenny breathed as she put her hand over her heart. "Poor Daddy!" She looked at the girl. "What happened to Mother?"

"I beg your pardon?" Emily asked as she looked at Jenny.

"I mean—what happened to the girl's mother?" She approached the girl and looked at her with anticipation.

"She—um—died soon after the father. The disappearance of Aunt Jeanette tore the family apart." The girl answered as if she wasn't sure why Jenny appeared to be so interested.

"I don't suppose you have any descriptions of your aunt and the man who disappeared with her," Sara asked.

"Richard Pendleton," Zach contributed. "He was never heard from again. Some thought maybe they took the gun and pulled a Romeo and Juliet number—you know—did a double-suicide."

"Oh no!" Dickie said quickly. "They wouldn't have done that."

Zach looked at Dickie then back to Sara, then took a double-take at Dickie, looking at his "Kiss me, I'm Irish" tee-shirt with a bit of distaste. "Ya never know. I mean, who knows what was going on in their minds. They could've went out and got smashed on some illegal hooch and ran off—figured they had no alternative and blew themselves away."

"Oh, no!" Jenny agreed. "Don't say such a thing. That's absolutely horrible."

Zach simply shrugged his shoulders and knelt next to his father and peered at the disrupted ground. The girl seemed to have more tenderness for Jenny's compassionate responses as she walked over to her. Jenny looked at her but was more interested in what was being investigated beneath the cottage, but when Emily reached up and touched Jenny's hair she pulled her head back then gave the girl a wary smile.

"You've got. . .such a distinct. . .hair color."

"Um—thanks."

"It's really rather beautiful. So unusual for someone your age. Sort of like the old silent film stars."

"It's—uh—thanks—I think."

"They say my great aunt Jeanette used to have hair like that." Emily brought her hand back down, as she looked at Jenny. "Has anyone ever told you that you have a very old soul?"

"Not lately, no," Jenny told her as she took a step closer to Dickie.

"Don't mind her," Zach said as he stood erect again and moved closer to the couple. "She's been into this voodoo garbage for years. Next thing you know she'll be pulling out a card table and reading your palm."

This comment urged Jenny to put her hands behind her back as she continued to look at the girl suspiciously, then recognition started to set in. "You look. . .familiar."

"So, all we have to do is give a little blood and you'll be able to see if the female body was related to me?" Bradley asked.

"Greg, take a sample from Mr. Spencer," Grissom said. "You can take it back to the lab with you."

"All I really need is some hair," Greg said as he took a step closer then paused when he saw that the man was nearly bald. "Or not."

"Here," Emily said as she reached inside an oversized purse. "I've got plenty of hair on this."

Emily pulled out a brush but as she did so, she dropped a silver compact. Jenny stooped to pick it up and examined it closely. If she hadn't already been deceased, she had a feeling she would have died right there on the spot. The engraving said "To my most cherished, from your eternal love." She turned to look at the other girl.

"Where did you get this?"

"Thank you," Emily said as she eyed Jenny and took it back. "It's rather unusual, isn't it? It belonged to my great-grandmother. It was a cherished piece she kept in her jewelry box until the day she died."

This brought a chuckle from Zach. "Cherished. Right. And it wasn't merely "kept in her jewelry box" Em—and you know it. I wish you'd stop romanticizing that stupid relationship! Everyone knows that she kept it locked in a safe so old Reg wouldn't get at it. He detested it!"

"Only because her old boyfriend gave it to her!" Emily snapped out of her unusually calm persona and glared at him, then took a deep breath to calm herself as she looked back at the others. "It seems "old Reg" got my grandmother on the rebound."

"From Aunt Jeanette's fiancé, no less," Zach chuckled. "Oh, the things that fall out of our family closet. I can't wait to find out about the two bodies."

"Well, I'll take that if you don't mind—Miss Spencer." Greg reached for the brush and Emily looked at him and smiled.

"My name's Emily—but you can call me Em. Everyone else does."

Jenny finally took her eyes off the compact that was thrust back into the purse and looked at the girl, then turned and looked back to Dickie. "We have to go. It was nice meeting you all."

"You're leaving?" Sara asked as she looked at them. "But. . ."

"I got a call from my brother this morning. He said to meet him. I'm sure he's waiting by now." She started walking toward the front of the cottages. "Thank you—we truly appreciated your hospitality. Goodbye!"

Dickie followed at a hurried pace as Emily and Greg watched them disappear around the building then they started at an even faster rate until they made their way into the wooded area where they could finally talk in privacy.

"Jenny!" Dickie said quickly. "That was the compact I gave to you the night we. . .went to be married!"

"I know. And you didn't give it to me until we were on our way. Dickie—they said their grandmother owned it—and she was your old girlfriend. Dickie—their grandmother was Pricilla! How did she get my compact?" She asked as she contemplated the question then looked back at him after noticing his eyes widen. "Dickie? What's wrong?"

"Oh, Jenny! I'm remembering. Oh—Jenny! They were there!"

"Who" was there? And "where" were they?"

She was completely confused then grasped onto Dickie's arms that were now covered again in his tuxedo jacket sleeves. She looked down at her shimmering gray/silver gown then took note to the nighttime sky and the full moon above them. The cottages were gone but the ground was excavated as if preparing for the arrival of the little buildings. They listened to the approach of a vehicle and watched the slim headlights turn onto Dickie's Picadilly. They watched in horror as the scene unfolded before her.

The car door thrust open on the driver's side of the newly arrived vehicle and a tall woman stepped out and swayed as she moved closer to Dickie's car. They could hear the woman slurring in what could only be explained as drunken rantings. Her vocalizations stopped as she looked into the rear of the car and she reached inside her purse then opened the door very quietly. Jenny gasped as she saw herself and Dickie semi-lying in the back of the Picadilly as they slept peacefully in one another's arms. Neither of them stirred as the woman watched them then she pulled the gun from its hidden locale. Another car swerved onto the small parking area but the woman hardly noticed as the first shot rang out.

Jenny covered her mouth as she watched her body jerk from the force of the bullet entering her head, then watched the look of utter confusion cover Dickie's face as he awoke and looked at the bloody woman in his arms.

"Jenny? Jenny?" His eyes widened in horror before turning toward the opened door and looking at the woman standing there just as a man jumped from the third vehicle and rushed toward them. "You bitch! You fucking bitch!"

Dickie lunged out of the car toward the woman just as the second shot rang out and hit him in the shoulder. He was thrown back against the car but only slowed momentarily as he reached for the woman again and grabbed her by the shoulders then threw her against the back fender of the car.

"Pricilla! My God! Don't!" Yelled the man who was rushing toward them but Dickie didn't seem to care as he went after the woman again. This time the shot hit him in the stomach and threw him back two steps, turning his eyes to the red that was quickly spreading across the bottom of his white shirt. He looked up in time to see Jenny's brother look in the car and see his sister lying dead across the back seat before looking back at the woman who was holding the gun.

"They attacked me, Reggie! They attacked me when I found them!" Pricilla said in an oddly strange voice as Reginald Spencer reached over and unfolded her hand from around the gun. "He said he was going to kill me, Reggie."

Dickie looked up into the mournful eyes of Jenny's brother and watched as they filled with tears and he turned toward him. The third shot rang out and dropped Dickie to his knees before he fell face-first onto the ground.

Jenny and Dickie watched as Reginald removed his jacket and went about moving his sister and her fiancé across the small area and put them into a large barrel before closing the gun inside with them. He moved them to the excavated area and went about burying them then came back to the car where he instructed Pricilla to follow him in her car as he drove it down the road. Jenny and Dickie didn't have to wait to know that they had gotten rid of the Picadilly then drove back to pick up Reginald's car. They knew what had happened as sure as if they had been alive to watch it happening. Just as they knew that Bradley, Emily and Zach were offspring of Pricilla Bentley and Reginald Spencer. Their hearts broke at the realization that while they were denied the opportunity to have children of their own, the people who murdered them, went on to create multiple generations.

Jenny turned her face into Dickie's chest and started to cry at her own loss, not noticing how the night was starting to dawn again until Dickie lifted her chin to look at him.

"Jenny? We're not alone anymore—people are coming!"

Jenny lifted her head to look at the first young couple that approached them. They wore clothing much like theirs but they were happy. She recognized them immediately. They were the very first couple they had played cupid at.

"We're finally getting to meet you," the blonde gentleman walked up and shook Dickie's hand. "I hope you remember us. We'll never forget you."

"I—I remember. . ." Jenny said with awe. "You're Edgar—and you're Mae. You were so in love, but couldn't seem to let one another know—until we. . ."

"Until you forced us to see the inevitable," Edgar chuckled. "And because of you, we had a long, wonderful life together."

Jenny smiled sadly at them. "I'm so glad we helped. You're gone now, also?"

"Oh—yes," Mae smiled back at her. "For nearly thirty years, and some of our children, too."

"Your children?" Jenny asked. "You had children?"

"Many. And they married and had children. We all did." Mae turned to look over her shoulder and suddenly the beach was filling with people of all eras, coming down from the 1920s through the 30s, 40s, 50s. . .and with them were visions of generations that were created because of Jenny's and Dickie's interventions. "You have to know that because of you—there were hundreds of children—hundreds of babies born that wouldn't have been otherwise."

There was an influx of friendly faces, all wanting to give gratitude to the golden couple as they approached them with various greetings and it went on for hours until the crowd slowly thinned down to only Jenny, Dickie, Edgar and Mae again.

"You made all of those lives possible. We wanted to make sure that you knew that." Edgar put his arm around his wife's waist as they looked at Dickie and Jenny.

"You had to be informed—so you could make your decision." Mae reached out and took Jenny's hand.

"Our decision?"

"Your mystery has been solved. You know what happened to you. You can come with us now."

"Our mystery?" Jenny asked. "I thought we were here because we had to make up for—well—being indiscreet. . .before we were . . ."

This comment brought a little chuckle from Mae. "No, dear. You loved one another—there's no reason to be punished for that. You weren't being punished at all, Jenny. You were being glorified. You stayed out of curiosity to see why you were here. Dr. Grissom and Sara have uncovered that mystery. The truth will come out as soon as they test that hair on the brush. It will have not only Reginald's descendant's hair on it, but Pricilla's as well. It will connect them to the evidence on the gun." Mae smiled at her again. "No, what you chose to do while you were here was your own choice and we all have cherished you for it. That's why your other choice is to stay here and continue with your work."

"But if we weren't being punished—then why couldn't we. . ." Dickie blurted then stopped himself.

"Guilt does amazing things, old chap," Edgar told him. "You "thought" you were being punished. . .so it was a sort of "self-imposed prison" of sorts."

"You mean we could have been making love all along?" Dickie blurted again, earning him a quick glance from Jenny.

"You've "been" making love all along, haven't you? Just in another way. Now you know you can love each other completely—without the restrictions you had set upon yourself."

"But you said we have a choice?" Jenny asked.

"Of course you do. You can come with us. . .well, not really with us," Mae smiled. "We're on our way to see our first great-great-great-granddaughter! She was just born a few hours ago."

"Oh, Mae!" Edgar joked. "Must you add "all" the "greats?" You're making me feel my age!"

"You'll never feel your age, my love." She turned back to Jenny. "But you can go with the others and we'll join you shortly. Or. . ."

"Or?" Jenny asked.

"Or, you can stay here and continue your legacy."

Jenny turned to look at Dickie. "Oh, Dickie, I don't know!"

"We don't really have to go just yet," Dickie gave her a gentle smile. "Not anymore. We know what we need to know—and we've got each other."

"But what if we change our minds?"

"You'll come whenever you're ready," Edgar explained, then turned and started walking back down the beach with Mae before disappearing into the mist over the lake.

Dickie looked down into Jenny's blue eyes and as always nearly drowned in them before taking her hand and slowly strolling back up the now-empty beach to where the cottages were in near darkness again. They silently floated up the stairs and inside where they found Grissom and Sara sitting at the kitchen table, holding hands as they looked at one another with such a devotion that it was palpable. Jenny looked up at Dickie and gave him a slanted smile.

"You haven't smiled like that for. . .eightyfive years, my little duckling," Dickie said soothingly then followed her as she held onto his hand and backed toward the bedroom.

Sara leaned closer to Grissom but paused. "Griss? Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"I could've sworn I just heard someone say. . ."Oh, Dickie—and then sigh."

Grissom merely shrugged his shoulders in dismissal. He had more important things on his mind than remembering two strangers that had crossed their paths for only two days. He smiled softly and pulled her into his arms and kissed her, bringing a sigh of her very own from her soft lips.

THE END


End file.
